Varun Adhikari
When I joined the Bairabi-Sairang railway project in 2015, it felt like stepping into a part of the country that rarely entered national focus. The journey itself told the story. National Highway-154, now NH-06, the only access route, was badly damaged and unreliable. Heavy trucks were often stranded for days, and bumpy travel became a routine part of site visits. The surrounding hills were young, deeply weathered, and unstable, shaped by intense rainfall and constant slope movement. On paper, the project was historic, Mizoram first railway connection to the national network cutting through mountains, steep gradients and deep gorges.
On the ground, however, progress was painfully slow. Site idling was common due to material unavailability, labour shortages, delayed transportation, local disturbances, and endlessly deferred decisions. As a tunnel design consultant and geologist, the geology was challenging but understandable. What proved far more difficult was institutional inertia. The project lay at the extreme periphery of the country. Reviews were sporadic. Decision-making authority was scattered across ministries, state departments, and agencies. Gradually, an unsettling realization took shape: it appeared as though no one truly expected the project to be completed in the foreseeable future.
Then, quietly and without announcement, urgency entered the system. There was a noticeable sense of urgency in the project offices. Phones rang more frequently. Senior officers began visiting sites with unusual regularity. Files pending for extended periods were promptly retrieved, reviewed, and circulated.
Meetings were scheduled in rapid succession, often involving agencies that previously worked in isolation.
As a private consultant, I was not part of the administrative core, and no one explained the reason for this sudden activity. But long experience on large infrastructure projects had taught me to recognize the signs. This was not routine pressure. It was preparation for scrutiny at the highest level.
Soon, the reason became clear. Soon, the reason became clear: the Bairabi- Sairang railway project was scheduled for review under PRAGATI, the Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation platform chaired by the Prime Minister. For a project long on the margins, this brought authority, accountability, and real-time scrutiny to every pending issue and inter agency bottleneck. After this meeting decisions aligned, and progress followed showing how governance often determines outcomes.
The PRAGATI review meeting of March 2016 fundamentally altered the project’s trajectory. Under this framework, problems could no longer be examined in isolation or deferred indefinitely. The severely deteriorated condition of NH-06 was no longer considered external to the railway’s mandate. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways was directed to undertake repair and improvement works, with clear timelines and continuous monitoring. Land acquisition delays were no longer treated as routine administrative hurdles, the Government of Mizoram was instructed to expedite resolutions, and progress was tracked. Law and order related issues were formally recognized as critical risks to execution and placed under close observation.
What stood out was not individual decisions, but their synchronization. Under PRAGATI, agencies could no longer work in isolation. Responsibilities were fixed, coordination became mandatory, and follow-up was constant. The effect was immediate, the Katakhal-Bairabi section was commissioned in March 2016, enabling freight movement and improving access, logistics, and planning. As months passed, it became clear that PRAGATI was changing institutional behaviour in a measurable way. Reviews shifted from explaining delays to resolving them, with photographs, timelines, and site status data replacing narrative reports. Digital monitoring ensured that issues raised once returned to the table until they were closed. This discipline altered responses across the system. Engineers became more decisive, contractors more accountable, and state and central agencies coordinated more closely because fragmentation was no longer tolerated. On the ground, the effect was visible. Tunnel excavation, once sporadic, began advancing steadily despite complex geology, fractured rock mass, shear zones, water ingress, and weak strata. Approvals for support systems and design modifications moved in weeks instead of months. Bridges started rising across deep gorges, some over seventy metres high, translating decisions taken hundreds of kilometres away into concrete and steel on site.
Even during the COVID-19 period, the same framework ensured continuity; labour shortages, contractual disputes, and execution challenges were closely monitored, and the project slowed but did not drift. Over time, the scale of achievement became evident: forty-five tunnels covering nearly one-third of the alignment, over 150 bridges, ballast less track through tunnel sections, and a design speed of up to 100 kmph through one of the most demanding terrains in the country. Four new stations Hortoki, Kawnpui, Mualkhang, and Sairang prepared to serve long isolated communities. Beyond engineering, the project underscored a deeper truth. Fragile geology can be managed, monsoons planned for, and logistics strengthened. What ultimately determines outcomes is governance the ability of institutions to align, decide, and act together.
Beyond its impact on projects in the Northeast, the PRAGATI portal has had a measurable influence on nationwide growth, as accelerated decision-making and improved coordination have supported the steady expansion of infrastructure across the country. In a recent press conference, Cabinet Secretary highlighted the impact and effectiveness of the PRAGATI mechanism. He stated that by December 2025, 382 major projects had been reviewed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi under the PRAGATI framework. The PRAGATI ecosystem has significantly accelerated the implementation of infrastructure projects valued at over ₹85 lakh crore (approximately USD 850 billion). As per government sources, this period has also seen a sharp rise in infrastructure spending, with capital expenditure increasing from Rs. 1.97 lakh crore in 2014- 15 to a budget estimate Rs. 11.21 lakh crore in 2025-26 more than a five-fold jump. As a share of the Union Budget, infrastructure capital expenditure doubled from nearly 12 percent to about 22 percent. As per Cabinet Secretary - PRAGATI functions as part of a broader, integrated digital ecosystem that includes PM Gati Shakti, PARIVESH, and the Project Monitoring Group (PMG).
Viewed in totality, on-ground observations, spatial outcomes, and financial indicators together suggest that infrastructure spending in India has been systematically scaled and effectively managed, reinforcing its role as a stable contributor to national growth.
(The author is a Principal Engineering Geologist with over 17 years’ experience in complex underground infrastructure projects across India.) |
