Vande Bharat Express: Here comes another piece of good news for the commuters of Assam. A new Vande Bharat Express is likely to be launched in Assam on Dibrugarh and Guwahati route before June next year. This piece of information was revealed to a group of citizens by the railway officials in Guwahati on Tuesday, a report by Assam Tribune said.
The meeting of the railway officials was attended by Dibrugarh district administration officials and administrators of the Dibrugarh Municipal Corporation, including Mayor Dr. Saikat Patra and Deputy Mayor Ujjal Phukan, and local MLA Prasanta Phukan.
During the meeting, the railway officials gave an outline of the passenger train services that will be augmented from the city. These trains include the reintroduction of the Brahmaputra Mail and the resumption of intra-state services like the train to Tezpur (Dekargaon), the local train services to Ledo and Dangori, Simaluguri, etc.
The officials highlighted that the Banipur terminal station is functioning way beyond its capacity and that the long-term plan is to have augmented services from the city's other stations at Chaulkhowa, Dhamalgaon, Lepetkata, and maybe even Lahowal.
However, the station is now servicing 36 trains a day which is said to be a big operational challenge for the railways every day.
The BJP camp in the city however seems bent on scrapping the DBRT station, saying the station's premises will be required for building vehicle parking space. Moreover, they said that the railway track from Gabharupathaar to the station campus is now a grave danger for the students of schools and colleges located along the KC Gogoi Road (Khalihamari Road). The railway tracks have been there since 1871, and the schools and colleges sprang up in the locality after 1945.
