The story so far: The Indian Railways recently commissioned the new 51.38 km track to Sairang, 18 km short of Mizoram’s capital Aizawl. It raises hopes for India’s ambitious Act East Policy which envisages rail and road links with Southeast Asia.
Mizoram had 1.5 km of metre gauge railway track connecting Bairabi in the State’s Kolasib district to Assam’s Silchar before the gauge conversion project, sanctioned in 2000, was undertaken. The extension of this project to Sairang, which entailed laying a 51.38 km track, began in 2008-09, but the progress was slow due to inclement weather, a difficult and landslide-prone terrain, manpower shortage, and issues with transporting construction materials. The project was part of the Indian Railways’ plan in the early 2010s to connect all the northeastern State capitals to the country’s rail network, although the Sairang railway station is 18 km short of Mizoram’s capital, Aizawl. The Bairabi-Sairang section, which received safety clearance in June 2025 and awaits formal inauguration, has 48 tunnels with a total length of 12.85 km and 142 bridges. The project cost more than ₹5,020 crore and the lives of 18 workers when the bridge with the tallest pier collapsed during construction in August 2023.
