Mizoram's Bairabi-Sairang Rail Line Complete, Fulfilling 26-Year Dream.

A quarter-century-long dream has finally materialized for Mizoram as the Bairabi-Sairang railway line is now complete, officially bringing the state capital, Aizawl, onto India's railway map. This 51.38-km line, conceptualized in September 1999, has overcome unprecedented challenges posed by its challenging alignment, short working seasons, and frequent landslides.

Railway officials confirmed that the project, envisioned over two decades ago, became a reality in June this year with its commissioning by the Commissioner of Railway Safety. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to officially inaugurate the line soon.

The journey to completion was fraught with difficulties from the very beginning. In 1999, engineers encountered an impassable landscape of dense forests and poor visibility, making a preliminary survey impossible. This led to a unique decision to conduct a reconnaissance survey, which involved a rough route assessment.

"Under a Preliminary Engineering-cum-Traffic Survey (PET), a detailed examination of the route is done. As a PET survey was found not feasible, the Board was requested to change it to Reconnaissance Engineering-Cum-Traffic (RET) survey, which the Railway Board agreed on July 15, 2003," a senior railway official explained. The RET survey for the Bairabi-Sairang Rail link was ultimately carried out by the Northeast Frontier Railways (NFR) in March 2006, with RITES submitting its final pre-construction survey and geo-technical investigation report in August 2011.

Recognizing its strategic importance as a link between Mizoram and the rest of the country, the then UPA government declared this project a "National Project" in 2008-09. Subsequently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid its foundation stone on November 29, 2014. The NFR completed the land acquisition by 2014-2015, with full-scale construction commencing in 2015-16.

Vinod Kumar, the project's chief engineer, highlighted the immense difficulties faced by the teams. "The working season in the area is of very short duration and limited to only four-five months (i.e., from November to March) in a year and no work is possible from April to October due to the prolonged duration of monsoon with heavy rainfall," he stated.

The railway's alignment traverses extremely challenging terrain, featuring deep valleys and gorges that necessitated the construction of numerous tunnels and tall bridges/viaducts. The transportation of materials also proved to be a persistent hurdle due to frequent disruptions on the National Highway between Guwahati and Silchar.

On-site engineers revealed that project access roads were prone to frequent landslides and became slippery even after a single rain, halting material movement. The narrow, steep gradients of these roads meant large trucks and trailers couldn't be used, requiring materials to be transshipped into smaller carriers for the final leg of transport. Even the logistics of transporting large cranes for bridge girder erection was a complex task, often requiring dismantling major parts and reassembling them on-site.

Compounding these issues was the severe shortage of local labor in Mizoram. "Mizoram is the remotest state in the Northeast with the project located in completely hilly areas with no mobile network at most of the project sites and therefore the labourers hesitated to come to Mizoram for work and there has always been a shortage of labour in the project," Kumar said. Additionally, suitable construction materials like sand and stone chips were unavailable locally, requiring them to be sourced from adjacent states such as Assam, West Bengal, and Meghalaya.

Despite these formidable obstacles, the NFR successfully completed the line, which features an impressive 48 tunnels spanning 12.853 km, 55 major bridges, 87 minor bridges, five road overbridges, and nine road underbridges. One of its most remarkable structures is Bridge No. 196, soaring to a height of 104 meters – an astounding 42 meters taller than the Qutub Minar.