Railways takes urgent initiative to ferry essentials, food items to Manipur

 In view of the prevailing law and order situation in Manipur and scarcity of essentials, the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) has taken urgent initiatives to transport essential commodities and other food items to the violence-hit state, officials said here on Tuesday.

NFR’s Chief Public Relations Officer Sabyasachi De said that the Khongsang Railway station in Manipur’s Tamenglong district has been opened for loading and unloading of essential commodities and other food items.

Khongsang is the latest station which was commissioned in 2022 in the Jiribam-Imphal new line project.

The line was earlier suspended due to the prevailing law and order situation in Manipur, the CPRO said, adding that a marketing inspector has been specially deputed in Imphal for the convenience of the Manipur based traders to book the commodities through Railways.

The marketing inspector will be available round the clock for any queries of the traders.

All Manipur-based traders can now avail the facility of booking essential commodities from Khongsang station, the official said.

De further said that under special consideration for the state, piecemeal booking of wagons have been allowed for the time being.

Onions from Maharashtra, potatoes from West Bengal and FMCG products from Assam have already been booked for Manipur.

The NFR has been constructing the 111-km-long Jiribam-Imphal railway project which has already achieved physical progress of 94 per cent and is targeted to complete the Rs 14,322 crore project by December this year.

After completion of the project, Imphal will come under the Indian Railways network, making Imphal the fourth capital city in the northeastern region to have a rail link after Assam, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh.