Centre’s green light to Bengal-Sikkim rail link

Sikkim will soon be connected with the rest of the country through a rail link. The Centre decided to lay a 52.7-km-long broad gauge rail line from Rangpo in Sikkim to Sevoke in neighbouring West Bengal.The decision was taken at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), which also decided to implement it as a national project at a cost of Rs 1,339.48 crore, Prithviraj Chavan, minister of state in the PMO, said.Being a national project means 25% of the fund would come from the gross budgetary support of the railways and the remaining 75% from the finance ministry. Work on the project is likely to begin this fiscal itself and completed by 2015-16, Chavan said. “The new broad gauge line will facilitate the direct movement of freight and passengers from this region to other parts of the country,” he said.In another decision, the CCEA decided to construct Integrated Check Posts (ICPs) at identified entry points from four neighbouring countries and set up a Land Port Authority to build and manage them. This will enable a hassle-free transborder movement, Chavan said.The ICPs would come up at 13 entry points at Attari-Wagah on the Pakistan border, Raxaul on the Nepal border, Moreh at the Myanmar border and Petrapole at the Bangladesh border.The project will cost Rs 635 crore. Like airports, the ICPs would be sanitised zones, with dedicated passenger and cargo terminals, comprising adequate Customs and immigration facilities, security and scanning equipment and health and quarantine facilities.Passenger amenities like waiting areas, restaurants, rest-rooms, duty-free shops, warehouses, container yards, banks and financial services and all other state-of-theart modern facilities would be part of these ICPs.