Find all information about Northeast Frontier Railway train zone

Northeast Frontier Railway

This railway zone is responsible for the transportation in the northeastern region of India as well as parts of West Bengal and Bihar.  With its headquarters in Maligaon, Guwahati in the state of Assam, it consists of 5 divisions including Katihar, Alipurduar, Lumding, Rangiya, Tinsukia. Each of these divisions is assigned a Divisional Railway Manager which is a senior administrative grade officer. 

The very first railway network was laid down in Assam by the Assam Railway and Trading Company in 1881. This was mainly intended for the internal transport of tea and coal and was not meant for passenger transport. 

The first passenger train was launched much later and was initially known as Dibru Sadiya Railway. The current Northeastern Frontier Railway that we know of came into being on April 14th, 1952 by merging two railway zones namely Assam Railway and Oudh and Tirhut Railway. 

By 15th January 1958, this zone was split into 2: The North Eastern Frontier Railway and North Eastern Railway which are both being used to advance the rail network of northeast India. 

Although this railway zone caters to all northeastern states, it is highly limited in terms of expansions and infrastructure by a fairly difficult and mountainous terrain in this region. In addition to that, the maximum speed of some of these trains does not exceed 30 kmph which is quite low for commercial and passenger railway trains.

This, in turn, has resulted in a fairly short small network with most of the railway zone functioning in the state of Assam than the others. Some of the major sections/trains that run along the Northeast Frontier railway include Guwahati–Lumding section, Silchar–Sabroom section, and New Jalpaiguri–New Bongaigaon section among many others.