Guwahati, March 17, 2025: BJP MP Dilip Saikia urged the Railway Ministry to name two long-distance trains from Assam to Delhi and Chennai after revered Vaishnavite saints Srimanta Sankardeva and Srimanta Madhavdeva, respectively, during a parliamentary debate on the 2025-26 Railway Budget. Representing Assam’s Darrang-Udalguri constituency, Saikia also called for a Vande Bharat Express between Dibrugarh and Guwahati via Rangia and Udalguri, and a direct train from Guwahati to Odisha to benefit the 45 lakh Odisha-origin residents in Assam.
Srimanta Sankardeva, a 15th-16th century Assamese saint and social reformer, founded the neo-Vaishnavite movement, while his disciple Srimanta Madhavdeva was celebrated for his artistic brilliance. Saikia highlighted the lack of railway connectivity in Darrang district, stating, “I’ve repeatedly raised this with the Railway Minister, but there’s no progress yet. What’s the current status?”
He also demanded the restoration of train halts at stations like Khoirabari, Dekargaon, Goreswar, Mazbat, Tangla, and Udalguri, discontinued during the Covid pandemic. Saikia praised the Modi government’s record-breaking Rs 2,65,200 crore allocation for Indian Railways in 2025-26—six times the Rs 45,900 crore under the UPA regime. He noted that 31,180 km of railway lines were laid in the last decade, with 4,876 km equipped with the Kavach safety system.
On electrification, he said, “From Independence to 2014, 21,000 km were electrified; in the last 10 years, over 60,000 km have been done, nearing 100% soon.” Later, Saikia tweeted, “Today in Parliament, I addressed railway issues in Darrang and beyond, committed to enhancing connectivity for my region.”
