One of the 45 tunnels on the new railway line.
The newly built Sairang station near Aizawl in Mizoram.
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurates the ₹8,071 crore, 51.38-kilometre railway line linking Bairabi station to the newly built Sairang station — located about 20 km from Mizoram’s capital Aizawl — it will mark a major milestone for the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR). It also signals the Indian government’s broader plan to extend railway connectivity all the way to the Myanmar border.
The ultimate aim is to connect the Northeast States with Kolkata Port via the Bay of Bengal, using the Sittwe Port in Myanmar, built by India, for both strategic and economic reasons. This would also help reduce the transport burden on the Siliguri corridor. While the new railway line to Aizawl is part of the Centre’s Capital Connectivity Project, a final survey is underway for a proposed 223-kilometre extension from Sairang — currently the last stop on the Indian Railways network — to Hbichhuah, near the Myanmar border.
Railway officials said the survey involves a complex LiDAR mapping exercise conducted via helicopters over dense forests and mountainous terrain. Once completed, the proposal will be submitted to the Railway Board for approval. The sea route from Kolkata to Sittwe spans approximately 540 kilometres, compared to nearly 2,000 kilometres by road. The plan is to move goods by sea to Sittwe, and then onward by road and river through the Kaladan Multimodal Transit Transport Project — funded by India — to reach Mizoram and other Northeastern States more quickly and sustainably.
