Nagaland: NFR’s silence reflects neglect of DMV

Once a bustling and vibrant transportation hub, Dimapur Railway Station (DMV) has unfortunately since fallen to neglect over the years. Despite its his­torical significance and potential for development, the station has experienced major decline in connectiv­ity and lack of attention from the authorities.

It may be noted that DMV was inaugurated on October 16, 1903 and has since played significant role in facilitating rail transpor­tation in the north-eastern region of India.

The station is situated in the Lumding-Dibrugarh section of the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) and falls under the jurisdic­tion of Lumding Division.

One of the major is­sues hampering the prog­ress of development and portraying the neglect of  NFR towards the DMV is the redirection of key train services such as the BG Express and Naga­land Express. After the Covid-19 lockdown, the BG Express and Nagaland Express, which used to emanate from and termi­nate at DMV, have since been diverted to Ledo and Mariani respectively.

This redirection has  significantly impacted Di­mapur’s connectivity, caus­ing major inconvenience to passengers and raising questions about the reason­ing behind these decisions.

In this regard, this re­porter had on May 22 put forward several questions to NFR Lumding division through its chief public relations officer (CPRO), however there was no  re­sponse till date.

The silence on queries regarding the redirection of trains from Dimapur dis­plays lack of transparency and accountability. The absence of clear explana­tion for these decisions has left passengers in Dimapur dissatisfied and confused, further highlighting the neg­ligence towards the station.

This redirection has greatly reduced the ticket quotas, negatively impact­ing the travellers. With limited availability of tick­ets, passengers often face difficulties in securing seats, particularly during peak travel periods. Railway of­ficials confirmed that more than 10,000 passengers travel to and from Dimapur on a daily basis.

As a result of reduced ticket quota, many com­muters now have to buy tickets from Mariani and other stations, since Dima­pur quota remains full most of the time. This has not only affected the commut­ers but also greatly impact­ed the revenue generation of the DMV.

Dimapur station, even though comparatively lag­ging now in terms of ame­nities and sanitation, was once the second highest revenue generator for the entire NFR, second only to Guwahati Railway Station.

Although there are around  3000 to 4000 passengers every day at  Dimapur railway station , it has  been allotted only 12 seats for   1^st AC ,140 for 2^nd AC, 347 for 3^rd AC, 583 for Sleepers, 50 for AC Chairs and 186 for 2^nd Class Sitting.

 Dimapur passengers are compelled to buy tickets at counters or online from quotas of Jorhat, Mariani or Tinsukia etc. The revenue will not be credited to Dimapur but to these stations in Assam.  This is one way where  Dimapur railway station’s revenue earning for NFR which till 2020 was the  second highest  has gone down even though the volume of travelling passengers remains high.

What is worse, even the state government appears to be giving only lip service towards improving Nagaland’s only airport and railway station as the state has not been persistent in this regard with   Civil aviation and Indian Railways (also NFR).

Thus if the state government is more interested in another Greenfield airport and  Dimapur-Kohima railway line,  both airport and railway station at Dimapur, the  two most crucial travel connection  points of the state,  would  eventually  become part of history.