All the north-eastern State capitals will be connected to the rail network within the next five years, Railway Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda announced on Tuesday.

He was speaking at a press conference after reviewing the progress of 34 ongoing railway projects, including 11 national projects of the Northeast Frontier Railway. At present only the capitals of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura in the north-east are connected to the rail network.

The Railway Minister, who was on a day’s visit to the city, told journalists that he would visit the region every after six months to monitor the ongoing projects. The total anticipated cost of these projects was Rs. 53522 crore, of which Rs. 19905 crore had already been spent as on March 31, 2014. The projects include laying new lines, gauge conversion and track doubling.

Mr. Gowda said he had already announced a budgetary grant of Rs. 5742 crore for the current financial year, which was 54 per cent more than the previous year’s allocation. He expressed satisfaction with the current pace of work. All the Chief Ministers of the region had been extending full cooperation in the execution of the projects and were providing the required security for train services as well. His priority was to ensure that the ongoing projects were completed within the target dates.

He said the Bogibeel rail­cum­road bridge across river Brahmaputra, about 17 km off the upper Assam town of Dibrugarh, would be completed by June 2017. The project was sanctioned in 1996­97 and declared a national project in 2005­06.

Earlier in the day, the Minister visited the Guwahati railway station to inspect passenger amenities. He said the passengers he spoke to said the amenities met their expectations.