Derailing Dimapur

Dimapur railway station, opened on October 16,1903 is among the oldest in the north east and played a vital role to transport soldiers and equipments during the famous Battle of Kohima during the Second World War. Dimapur railway station has been the second highest revenue earner for the Northeast Frontier Railway(NFR). However despite this vital fact, passengers travelling to and from DImapur railway station have been given a raw deal by the NFR. Unfortunately, the state government has been ignoring this aspect. In other states, state governments press for increased seats quotas as well as facilities. Other state governments demand betterment of railways and air connectivity but for Nagaland, it appears that connectivity is only about construction of roads. The announcement to develop Dimapur Railway Station into a world class station, with an allocated budget of Rs.280 crore is nothing short of marvellous since the railway station has been earning the second highest revenue for the Northeast Frontier Railways (NFR). Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the redevelopment of the century-old Dimapur Railway Station on August 6, as part of the nationwide ‘Amrit Bharat Station Scheme,’ which aims to modernize 508 railway stations, including 56 in the northeast region. Despite being a high revenue earner, Dimapur has been slowly squeezed off even the basic train services. At one time, Jan Shatabdi (1996); BG Express (1998) and Nagaland Express(2011) operated between Guwahati to Dimapur in addition to other long distance trains passing through. However, in a deft move by Maligaon -based NFR, Jan Shatabdi was extended to Furkating and eventually Jorhat in 1998. This was followed in 2020, when BG Express was shifted to Mariani and Nagaland Express, as the name suggests, especially meant for Dimapur was shifted to Ledo in 2020. Both the trains were shifted when concerns were expressed by some organisations on Covid-19 grounds. However, after the pandemic was lifted in 2022, both these trains still haven’t been reverted to Dimapur. Also despite the high volume of passengers, pproximately around ten thousand each day for both incoming and outgoing passengers; only 1318 seats are made available such as – 12 seats for 1st A/C ; 140 seats for 2nd A/C; 347 seats for 3rd A/C; 583 seats for Sleepers; 50 seats for A/C Chairs and 186 seats for 2nd Class Sitting. Therefore, even the announcement to make Dimapur into a world class station with a budget of Rs.280 crore should be taken with a pinch of salt. The reasons is that NFR has always cited lack of space where 30.283 hectares out of 53.806 hectares have been encroached and over which 1,148 unauthorised structures including three mandirs have been built. Lack of space is preventing expansion into double-track at Dimapur. Encroachments were permitted by NFR even before Nagaland became a state in 1963. NFR is legally responsible and empowered to evict encroachers but it has not done so. Instead it implies that the state government should now come in. Therefore, like shifting trains from Dimapur to Assam and allotting a pittance for huge volume of passengers; there is no guarantee that NFR might “shift” or divert Rs.280 away from Dimapur due to encroachment. After issuing directive on Railways to evict encroacher on December 16,2021 the Supreme Court on December 17,2021 also directed Railways to act against its officials who facilitated encroachments.