Assam signs two MoUs to ensure hassle-free rail and river travel

The Assam government on Wednesday signed two Memorandums of Understanding MoUs to ensure hassle-free rail and river travel.The first pact was signed with the Northeast Frontier Railway NFR for transfer of the Assam State Transport Corporation ASTCs land in Paltanbazar here to the railways for setting up a second entry point to Guwahati railway station, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said at the signing ceremony.

The Assam government on Wednesday signed two Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) to ensure hassle-free rail and river travel.

The first pact was signed with the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) for transfer of the Assam State Transport Corporation (ASTC)'s land in Paltanbazar here to the railways for setting up a second entry point to Guwahati railway station, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said at the signing ceremony. NFR will take possession of ASTC's Paltanbazar campus in lieu of handing over 20 bighas of railway land in Jalukbari area here in addition to Rs 5.93 crore, he said. This will facilitate building of a world-class railway station here with all passenger amenities, Sarma said. ''We are building a state-of-the-art bus station and a world class railway station worth Rs 700 crore in Guwahati. To facilitate this, we signed an MoU to exchange land between railways and Assam government. The double engine govt continues with its high-speed journey'', Sarma said. Guwahati railway station witnesses an annual footfall of 1 crore passengers and has a growth rate of 15-20 per cent, he added. The Chief Minister said in the past nine years, 212 km of metre gauge have been converted to broad gauge while over 200 km of broad gauge tracks have been doubled. ''Railways is also building a dedicated freight station at Agyathuri and another railway bridge over Brahmaputra'', Sarma said. The second MoU was signed between the Inland Water Transport (IWT) and Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) to provide seamless fuel to IWT ferries, he said. The MoU was signed to secure High Speed Diesel (HSD) for Inland Water Transport's fleet from NRL, through its mobile dispensing vehicles. ''This will ensure high quality bulk quantity of HSD to the IWT department, boost efficiency of vessel engines and make them environment friendly'', Sarma said.

ASTC Managing Director Rahul Das and Additional Divisional Railway Manager (Lumding Division) Sai Singh Kongrymmai signed the first MoU while IWT Director Partha Pegu and NRL Chief General Manager (Marketing) Subrata Das signed the other.

Assam Transport Commissioner Adil Khan, NF Railway's Chief General Manager Chetan Kumar Srivastava and NRL's Managing Director Bhaskar Jyoti Phukan were also present on the occasion.