Following the decision made in cabinet meeting, the Assam State Transport Corporation (ASTC) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Northeast Frontier (NF) Railway at Guwahati on Wednesday in the presence of Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, NF Railway General Manager Chetan Kumar Shrivastava and state transport secretary Adil Khan.
According to the MoU signed, 4 bighas of land belonging to ASTC at Paltan Bazar is handed over to NF Railway and in exchange 20 bighas of land in Jalukbari of the same value will be given to the former. In addition, the railways will pay a sum of amount of Rs. 5.9 crore to ASTC for the construction of new buildings.
Addressing the event at Janata Bhawan in Dispur, CM Sarma said, “Guwahati Railway station witnesses an annual footfall of 1 crore passengers with a growth rate of 15-20 percent. To ease passenger convenience & to develop a world class Railway terminal, we've signed an MoU with NF Railway for transfer of ASTCs premises to the Railways.”
The MoU includes the following points:
A second entry point to the Guwahati Railway Station will be built at Paltan Bazar
NFR to take possession of ASTC’s Paltan Bazar campus in lieu of handing over 20 bighas of Railway land in Jalukbari and Rs. 5.93 crore
This will facilitate building of a world-class railway station in Guwahati with all passenger amenities
Notably, in a weekly meeting held on May 8, the cabinet approved ASTC land in Paltanbazar will be transferred to Railway Authority for the construction of a second entry gate to the Guwahati Railway Station to ease the issues of passengers travelling to the station.
