(PTI)
The Union budget for fiscal 2018-19 has proposed electrification of 881 km of rail network in West Bengal at a proposed cost of Rs 771.54 crore, a senior railway official said here today. The project will be undertaken in seven zones of West Bengal, under the jurisdiction of Kolkata-based Eastern Railway, South Eastern Railway (SER) and Maligaon-based North Frontier Railway (NFR), he said. Among these seven areas, the New Jalpaiguri-New Mal Jn-Alipurduar-Samuktala section and Alipurduar-New Coochbehar section, including New Mal Jn-Changrabandha, New Changrabandha-New Coochbehar, New Coochbehar-Bamanhat and New Coochbehar-Fakirgram-Dhubri routes, will see the most extensive work. The electrification work, under NFR jurisdiction, will mostly cover railroads in north Bengal districts of Jalpaiguri, Coochbehar and Alipurduar and also some parts of western Assam bordering West Bengal, the official said. A total of 506 km has been earmarked for this project, under NFR zone, at an estimated cost of Rs 475.31 crore. Of that 412 km comes within the perimeters of West Bengal, the official said.
