Aizawl, July 3: In a significant advancement for transportation in the Northeast, Aizawl, the capital of Mizoram, is poised to connect with the national railway system for the first time through the newly completed 52-km Bairabi–Sairang rail line.

This project, which has an estimated cost of Rs 8,000 crore, is now ready for inauguration by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Vinod Kumar, the chief engineer overseeing the project, noted that most construction materials were sourced from various states.

"We transported crushed stones from Assam, West Bengal, and Jharkhand, while sand was procured from Silchar and Guwahati. Reinforcement rods were acquired from Kolkata, where they were bent for easier transport to the construction site," he explained.

"Due to their length, 12-ft-long rods could not be carried by small vehicles, and larger ones were unable to navigate the roads," he added.

Kumar also mentioned that the steel girders used in the construction were produced in Raipur (Chhattisgarh), Kolkata (West Bengal), and Wardha and Ahmednagar (Maharashtra).

Officials from the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) highlighted the logistical challenges of transporting girders to the site, necessitating special arrangements.

"The two main roads connecting Aizawl to Guwahati frequently close due to landslides or poor conditions. Therefore, we transported the girders via the rail network to Bairabi and then arranged for their delivery to the site," Kumar detailed.

"We had to dismantle cranes to transport them to the site for placing the girders on the bridge. Tasks that should have taken a day extended over a month due to these complications," he added.

The project employed both skilled and unskilled laborers from West Bengal, Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Jharkhand.

With the completion of the Bairabi-Sairang line, Mizoram will become the fourth northeastern state to connect its capital to the national railway network.

According to NFR, the railway line features 48 tunnels spanning 12.853 km, along with 55 major and 87 minor bridges, five road overbridges, and nine road underbridges. Notably, one bridge, numbered 196, reaches a height of 104 meters, surpassing the Qutub Minar by 42 meters.

The railway line was developed in four phases: Bairabi-Hortoki (16.72 km) was commissioned in July 2024, while Hortoki-Kawnpui (9.71 km), Kawnpui-Mualkhang (12.11 km), and Mualkhang-Sairang (12.84 km) were all commissioned in June of this year.