Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw has approved the final location survey of the 111 km Imphal-Moreh section for the development of a new broad gauge railway line. The Railway line strives to connect India with the neighbouring nation Myanmar. Railway Minister Vaishnaw, accompanied by Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh, after carrying out an aerial inspection of railway projects in Manipur, directed the location survey for the new BG line up to Moreh. Moreh is a significant border trade centre along the India-Myanmar border with eastern Manipur. This new line once formed will be of strategic significance and will create a vital part of the planned Trans-Asian Railway, which will link India with South East Asia on a rail network, a senior Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) official told the media. The NFR is now executing the Rs 14,320 crore Broad Gauge (BG) railway project to link the Manipur capital Imphal by December 2023. After the achievement of the Rs 14,320 crore crucial railway line (Jiribam-Imphal) by 2023, Manipur capital Imphal would be the fourth capital city in the northeastern part after Arunachal Pradesh’s Naharlagun (adjacent to capital city Itanagar), Assam’s main city of Guwahati (adjoining capital Dispur), and Tripura capital Agartala. The NFR is additionally laying new railway tracks to link the capital cities of two more northeastern states — Mizoram and Nagaland. Image Source