NEW DELHI, November 10 (MIC): Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh today met Union Minister of Forest and Environment here and drew his attention for issuing necessary orders on the clearance of its Ministry as soon ad possible in regards to the construction of Jiribam-Tupul-Imphal BG railway project.
Mention may made that the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) of the Ministry of Environment, Finance and Climate Change (MoEFCC) during its meeting held on 22-23 September 2014, discussed 37 proposals for diversion of forest land for non- forest purpose. Of these 9 proposals including ‘Northeast Frontier Railways-Jiribam-Imphal-Tupul BG railway project’ in the transport services segment were recommended by FAC.
Forest Advisory Committee recommended diversion of 1,005.055 hectares of forest land for construction of 111 km long Jiribam-Tupul-Impal railway line in Manipur. Completion of the project will lead to Imphal getting connected to India’s railway network.
Northeast Frontier Railway’s (NFR) Jiribam-Tupul-Imphal BG railway line project was sanctioned way back in 2003-04. However, the project could not make much progress due to lack of environmental clearances. Work on the project gained pace only after intervention of the Project Monitoring Group (PMG) under the Cabinet Secretariat. MoEFCC was asked by the PMG to expedite grant of clearances for the project.
Work on the Rs.60 billion project is being taken up in two phases. Under Phase -I, 84 km Jiribam-Tupul section will be completed by March 2016. Remaining 27 km stretch between Tupul and Imphal will be taken under Phase -II and will be commissioned by March 2018. The project will also feature tallest girder rail bridge in the world. Bridge no 164 will have a pier height of 141 metre. At present, Mala-Rijeka viaduct on Belgrade-Bar railway line in Europe has the tallest pillar of height 139 metre.