When a train comes to Aizawl: How the new railway line brings both hope and hesitation in Mizoram

The soon-to-be-launched Bairabi-Sairang line links Bairabi on Mizoram’s northern border to Sairang near Aizawl, bringing the Indian Railways to the state capital for the first time. Work on the 51.38-km line was completed in June this year. With that, Aizawl becomes the fourth northeastern capital after Guwahati, Agartala and Itanagar to be linked to the Indian Railways’ grid. With the trial run conducted on May 1, 2025, operations on the line are expected to begin by September, officials said.

Around noon on a Friday, an inspection car attached to a diesel locomotive sets off from Sairang, a station on the banks of Kurung river and surrounded by the Lushai hills. With a significant section of the line held up by piers and pillars, for most part of the journey, it’s a dreamy ride through cottony clouds and blue skies.

Yet, the line fulfils other real-world, practical needs. It’s a key part of a larger, strategic plan to provide seamless connectivity to districts and areas in the Northeast that border Bangladesh, Myanmar and China. The idea is to not only facilitate people movement and trade access to the Northeastern states, but to meet the logistical demand of defence forces on the border. It also fits in with the Kaladan Multi Modal Transit Transport Project, which links Kolkata to Sittwe port in Myanmar via sea link, before reaching Zorinpui in Mizoram. Beyond that, a network of road and rail projects such as the Bairabi-Sairang line and its proposed extension, the 223-km Sairang to Hbichhuah (on Mizoram’s border with Myanmar) line, is seen as India’s answer to posturing by Bangladesh and China.

Currently, the only access the rest of India has to the Northeast is through the Siliguri Corridor, a strip of land called the ‘Chicken’s Neck’. But its geography and proximity to neighbouring countries makes the corridor vulnerable, especially in times of conflict.

Bairabi-Sairang line passing through the Lushai hills (Dheeraj Mishra)

In March, Muhammad Yunus, Chief Adviser of Bangladesh’s interim government, had said in Beijing that Northeast India was “landlocked” and called Dhaka the “only guardian of the ocean for all this region” — a remark that invited a sharp rebuttal from India.

The need for a line

National Highway-6, which runs along the new railway line, is currently the lifeline of Mizoram. It connects Silchar in Assam to Aizawl. Most of the essential supplies that come to the state, including vegetables and construction material, take this route.

But the road journeys are often long and hard, with the highway witnessing landslides and blockages during the monsoons. While it takes around five hours from Sairang to Bairabi by this road, the train is expected to cut travel time to 1.5 hours.

But Mizoram’s geography meant it took a long time for the Railways to enter the state. It’s landlocked, with Myanmar to its east and south and Bangladesh on the west. It also shares its northern boundary with Assam, Tripura and Manipur. It was only in May 2016 that the 84-km-long narrow gauge line between Katakhal (Assam) and Bairabi (Mizoram) was brought on the broad gauge network of the Indian Railways.

On September 22, 1999, the Railway Board sanctioned a Preliminary Engineering cum-Traffic Survey to explore the feasibility of extending the railway line beyond Bairabi. “But the survey work could not be completed as the proposed alignment passes through thick forest areas with poor visibility. Besides, there were protests from residents,” said a senior official in the Ministry of Railways.

In March 2006, the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR), the railway zone under which this line falls, carried out another survey for the Bairabi-Sairang line, following which the Centre declared it a ‘national project’ in 2008. On November 29, 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the line, following which construction began in 2015-16.

Train passing through Hortoki, one of the four newly built stations on the Bairabi-Sairang line. (Dheeraj Mishra)

The challenges began soon after, with officials saying that around 44 per cent of the line had to be blasted through mountains.

Vinod Kumar, chief engineer of Bairabi-Sairang line who worked for over five years on the project, says, “This will be counted among the most difficult projects of the Indian Railways. The hills here are of shale formation – ye mitti ke pahad hain. We had a very short window since the working season is limited to 4-5 months a year, from November to March. It’s impossible to work from April to October due to the prolonged monsoon. The alignment traverses through hilly terrain, deep valleys and gorges, so we had to build a lot of tunnels, bridges and viaducts.”

The line, which runs along the east bank of river Tlawng, has 48 tunnels, 55 major bridges, 87 minor bridges, five Road over Bridges and six Road Under Bridges, of which Bridge No. 196 or the Kurung Bridge is the highest at 114 metres, 42 metres taller than the Qutub Minar. On August 23, 2023, a steel girder on the Kurung bridge collapsed, killing at least 23 workers.

Kumar says the frequent blockades on the National Highway between Guwahati and Silchar meant transportation of materials was a big challenge.

“The access roads to the project site are prone to frequent landslides, impeding the movement of men and materials to the site. The access roads are narrow and with steep gradients on which big trucks and trailers cannot ply. So the material had to be brought to the site in smaller vehicles. Some of the small trailers had to be pushed and pulled with chain-mounted cranes,” he says.

Kapinjal Kishore Sharma, Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) of NFR, says large cranes, which had to be deployed to work on the bridge girders, had to be dismantled before being reassembled at the work site.

Some of the construction material too had to be transported from Assam, West Bengal and other states.
Now that the line is finally ready and waiting to be launched, officials say an extension of the line is underway, with a Final Location Survey being conducted for a proposed 223-km railway line from Sairang (Aizawl) to Hbichhuah in Mizoram, on the border with Myanmar.

‘Let us live as we want’

While the train is the talk of Sairang, the anticipation is tinged with a sense of foreboding — of ‘outsiders’ and the need to secure Mizo identity.

“Of course, we are excited to see the train, but there is fear too. There is talk that crimes will rise, local people could be in trouble, etc. Because currently, you can check the ILP (the Inner Line Permit) at road-check points and airports. How will it be checked on the train, that is our concern,” says K Chawikimi, 53, who runs a shop selling cement and other construction material at Sairang Bazar.

K Chawikimi runs a shop selling cement and other construction material at Sairang Bazar.

Chawikimi, whose shop is one of the many women-led businesses in the town, goes on: “There is no doubt that once the train comes, it will be easier and cheaper to get my supplies. Currently, I get them from Kolkata. A kg of iron rod costs me Rs 61 a kg and I sell it for Rs 65. Often, the costs escalate because of the delay in supply due to the road blockades. So I am happy that the train will help in reducing the cost. But the Railways should ensure the protection of our rights. I hope the outsiders understand this too. Let us live as we want.”

Mizoram is one of four Northeast states that requires non-residents to furnish an ILP to enter the state. It’s a lightning rod in a region with high anxieties about identity and the alleged influx of outsiders.

Around 6 km far from Sairang, Vanlalrinliana, 74, says the Railways is one of the best things that has happened to Mizoram in many years. “However, I would have liked it if they used the line to only bring in goods. Now that they have said there will be passenger trains on this line, the government should look at our concerns regarding outsiders,” says Vanlalrinliana, who retired in 2019 from the state government department.

Biakthangi is more hopeful. The 60-year-old sees the train as an opportunity to expand her business — she supplies bamboo shoots, lemon juice and vegetables to different markets in Aizawl.

“In 2008, I bought a shirt in Kolkata for Rs 175 and sold it here for Rs 700. So I know what Mizo people like. Once the transportation is taken care of, I will get things from Delhi and Kolkata at cheaper rates and bring it here. You never know, I might get rich,” she laughs.

Biakthangi hopes to expand her business once the train arrives

On tunnels walls, a slice of Mizo art

Women in the colourful attire performing ‘Cheraw’, a traditional bamboo dance, to the accompaniment of drums and gongs; the deeply symbolic Seluphan or wooden memorial posts; the warrior class of Pasaltha in their traditional headgear — a ride on the 51.38-km Bairabi-Sairang rail line is a journey through Mizo society and its history.

The images — mostly a slice of Mizoram society with images of Mizo villages and their traditions — adorn the walls and portals of the tunnels on the rail line.

Kapinjal Kishore Sharma, Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) of the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR), says the Mizo artists reached out to them with the idea of painting the tunnels.

“Initially, we had decided to paint the tunnel portals as usual. But some of the local Mizo artists reached out to us, showed their work and asked for permission to draw. It turned out to be a great idea. Since the line has 48 tunnels, it looks spectacular when you pass them one after another. If you will look closer, it tells a complete story of Mizo society,” says Sharma.

Beyond Bairabi, until now the railhead for Mizoram and from where the new line extends to Sairang near Aizawl, the opening of Tunnel No 1 features a painting of women and men performing the Chheihlam dance. Tunnel No. 3, which is the longest tunnel on the route, too, depicts Mizo musical instruments, attire, animals and Mizo warriors.

V L Ruata Pachuau, 37, one of the artists involved in the project, who is currently working on a tunnel near the Khamrang station, invokes a Mizo phrase, “A serh zinga mei ang” — that which cannot be done away with.

“For non-Mizos who want to understand our society and culture, our paintings would be ‘a serh zinga mei ang’. The story of Railways coming to the state for the first time is important, but the much bigger story is about its people. And there could not have been a better way to communicate that than through these paintings,” says Pachuau, who also drives a bike taxi.

The 335-metre-long Tunnel No. 36 features life in a typical Mizo village, including the Lal In (chief’s house) and Zawlbuk (a dormitory), with armed Mizo warriors, the Pasaltha, on guard.