North Eastern Railway Connectivity Project

North Eastern Railway Connectivity Project is an multi phased railway connectivity project in Northeast India which comprises states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura and it also includes the state of Sikkim. These states come under Northeast Frontier Railway Zone of Indian Railways. This Railway project is considered as strategically important for India because it connects all the border states in this region and also close to ASEAN countries.

The Government of India has planned and projected to connect all capitals of North Eastern states by 2023.

Background
Northeast Region or popularly known as Seven Sister states are strategically important areas to counter China. These state are connected to India through very narrow area of Siliguri Corridor also named as Chicken's neck. After China's claims over Doklam area of Bhutan and India. It becomes important for India to boost connectivity in this region. During the Sino-Indian War and Nathu La and Cho La clashes came closure to border and build villages near border with Bhutan, India and Nepal.

Under prosperous project by PM Narendra Modi PM Gati Shakti which was launched in 2021 with aim to boost connectivity across the country and to connect all the capitals of Indian state. Especially this region is considered as Gateway to Southeast Asia. Thus strategic railway lines is important for this region. The region currently has 6,829 km of rail network mostly in the state of Assam.

Also to develop tourism in this region railways is major medium. In 2023, various deluxe train started which will tour passenger with major locations like Kamakhya Temple, Guwahati,Kaziranga National Park in Assam, Unakoti in Tripura, Cherrapunji in Meghalaya, Dimapur in Nagaland etcetera locations.

Currently there are three capitals which are linked with railways, they are: Guwahati, Itanagar and Agartala.

India–Bangladesh rail link
The Government of two countries signed MoU for railway project linking Akhaurah, Bangladesh and Agartala of Tripura, India. The project is expected to be completed in mid-2023. NFR also conducted surveys for Belonia-Chittagong rail link.