Connectivity
The connectivity of Silchar to other cities has long been a matter of concern. Silchar is connected by road, railways and air to the rest of the country. It is connected by a meter gauge rail network to Lumding and Agartala which is currently being upgraded to broad gauge lines. Although the plan of up-gradation of the meter gauge network to Lumding had been planned many years back and was scheduled to be completed long back, this is still going on. As per latest updates, Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) says the project will be completed by December, 2013, but in reality it seems doubtful due to too slow work progress. The railway station is in Tarapur, Silchar. Regular bus services connect it with Guwahati, Jorhat, Dibrugarh, Shillong, Aizawl, Agartala and other places. However during the rainy seasons, heavy rains along the Silchar-Shillong-Guwahati route, particularly the road between Shillong and Silchar,(via kalain) cause frequent landslides which brings communication to a standstill. Although there have been plans to have a permanent solution to this problem, by constructing retaining walls, but nothing much has been done so far. Many believe that the connectivity issues have had a bad impact on the overall development of Silchar.
The airport is located at Kumbhirgram, about 22 km from Silchar and there are regular flights connecting Silchar with Kolkata, Guwahati, Tezpur, Jorhat, Agartala and Imphal. The airport is being mordernised and is considered the fourth-busiest in north eastern India after Guwahati, Imphal and Agartala in terms of flight movements.
In December 1985, Air India operated the first all-woman crew flight in the world from Kolkata to Silchar which was commanded by Captain Saudamini Deshmukh on a Fokker F-27 Friendship aircraft.
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