Maligaon, Jan 21: Mr Rajen Gohain, Union Minister of State of Railways today laid foundation stone for construction of one Diesel Electric Multiple Unit (DEMU) train shed at Lumding. This DEMU shed would be upgraded to Mainline Electric Multiple Unit (MEMU) shed once electrification of railway track is carried out.
He also laid foundation stone for construction of one new coaching depot there. Shri Sibu Misra, MLA / Lumding, Shri Sanjive Roy / General Manager, N.F. Railway and other senior railway officials were also present on the occasion.
Speaking on the occasion Shri Rajen Gohain said that more and more long distance trains will start from Lumding in future, as Guwahati station has become very crammed for introducing any further long distance trains. He also said that one south bound train has been planned to run from Silghat shortly.
More flyovers will come up in places like Jamunamukh, Kampur and nearby areas of Lumding, he announced. He hoped that with the setting up of DEMU shed and coaching depot at Lumding, local un-employed youths with get scope for employment in various segments.
Mr Sibu Misra, MLA of Lumding in his speech thanked Shri Rajen Gohain for taking the initiatives for setting up of the DEMU shed and coaching depot at Lumding. He said that with the setting up of the shed and depot, local youth will surely get opportunity for direct and in-direct employment.
An amount of Rs. 88.39 cr. has been sanctioned for setting up of the depot. Lumding DEMU (Diesel Electric Multiple Unit) base depot will primarily serve requirements of Lumding and Tinsukia divisions. DEMU operations over N.F. Railway have been planned with maintenance support at Siliguri and Lumding as base depots and Tinsukia and Agartala as satellite depot.
Further depots at Katihar and Rangapara will come up later. The Lumding base depot together with satellite depots will be able to hold more than 30 DEMU rakes to meet the passenger train requirement of the area. Presently N.F. Railway has 24 DEMU rakes which are likely to go up soon in view of Railway Board’s policy of replacing conventional rakes with DEMU rakes.
Similarly, with the extension of new lines to the state capitals of Tripura Agartala, Nagaland, Zubza in Kohima, Manipur in Imphal, Mizoram in Sairang and Aizwal the need to develop a coaching Terminal at Lumding has become essential.
Passengers from the various destinations of NE region will reach Lumding and catch long distance trains bound to Kolkata, Delhi, Banglore / Chennai and Mumbai etc. Further, with the connectivity to Akhura and Maishashan, in Lumding Division, passengers from Bangladesh will also avail this facility from Lumding.
On the other hand Lumding will be connected through about 10 Inter City Exp. Trains per day from various state capitals. About 10 to 12 DEMU trains will fetch passenger from adjacent areas falling within a radius of 100 km and 150 km around to board Mail and Exp trains from Lumding. On an average 6 Mail Exp train will also originate from Lumding. Thus Lumding Coaching Depot will develop as coaching hub with primary maintenance facility which will be of enormous benefit to passengers.
Earlier, General Manager of the N.F. Railway Shri Sanjive Roy welcomed all guests who were present in the meeting and gave a brief description of the works to be done. The vote of thanks was given by Shri Ram Bahadur Rai, Divisional Railway Manager of Lumding.
