Context: After years of opposition by Khasi pressure groups against rail connectivity to Byrnihat in the Khasi Hills – and subsequently, the state capital Shillong – the Indian Railways is ready to shelve pending railway line projects to these two key locations.

Background:

• With this, Shillong will become the only state capital in the country without railway connectivity or an active ongoing rail project underway.
• New protests have now cropped up in the state’s Jaintia Hills against a recently sanctioned project to bring a railway line to Jowai, the biggest town in the Jaintia Hills.

Key points

• Meghalaya has only one railway station, at Mendipathar in the North Garo Hills, which became operational in 2014. Passenger trains ply between Guwahati and Mendipathar daily, and the station received its first freight shipment last month.

Apart from this, the Northeast Frontier Railways (NFR) had three more projects in the state.

• Tetelai-Byrnihat Line
  • The first is a 21.5-kilometre line connecting Tetelia railway station in Assam to Byrnihat in Meghalaya’s Ri Bhoi district. This had been sanctioned in 2010.
  • In the Tetelia-Byrnihat line, all the work on the 19 km line on the Assam side has been completed. Because of the local opposition, the Railways is considering terminating this line at the Assam border itself.
• Byrnihat-Shillong
  • The second project, sanctioned in 2011, is for a 108.76 km line from Byrnihat to Shillong with 10 stations.
  • In 2017, the Indian Railways granted Meghalaya Rs. 209.37 crore for land acquisition for these two (Tetelai-Byrnihat Line and Byrnihat-Shillong) projects. However, opposition from the Khasi Students’ Union (KSU) has left the project in limbo indefinitely.
• Chandranathpur to Jowai
  • A third project, approved in 2023, would connect Chandranathpur station in Assam to Jowai in the East Khasi Hills. The project is at an initial survey stage, but is already facing opposition from Jaintia pressure groups.

But why are groups opposing these projects?

• The KSU has opposed the entry of railways into the Khasi Hills since the 1980s. The stated reason has remained the same to this date: that the railways will bring about a huge influx of “outsiders” into the state.
• A long-standing demand has been the introduction of the Inner Line Permit (ILP) Regime in the state, already in place in neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram, and most recently, Manipur. 
• The ILP is an official travel document issued by the respective state, authorising the travel of an Indian citizen into a “protected area” for a limited period. An Indian citizen who does not belong to these states cannot stay beyond the time period specified in the ILP.
• The groups spearheading the opposition are holding this issue as a bargaining chip to demand the ILP. But the public is quite indifferent. 
• The Railways is crucial for the economic viability of the state where 75% of the population depends on small patchy agriculture and the rest is a service economy. There is an inflation in the prices of goods because of transport by road. The railways could help mobilise productivity and bring prices down.

Source: Indian Express