The day the train finally reached Aizawl

For as long as there have been trains in India, getting to Aizawl meant a long, winding road. That changed on 13 September 2025, when the Bairabi–Sairang line opened and Mizoram's capital was linked to the national rail network for the first time.

51 kilometres, ten years

On a map the line looks short: 51.38 km from Bairabi, on the Assam border, to Sairang, about 20 km from Aizawl. On the ground it is one of the hardest stretches of track in the country. The hills here are steep and soft and it rains for much of the year, so the engineers could only build for a few months at a time.

Work started in 2015. By the time it was done the line had 45 tunnels and well over a hundred bridges, 55 of them major ones. Roughly a third of the route runs underground and almost a quarter is on bridges. The tallest pier, on the approach to Sairang, stands more than 100 metres high, which makes it taller than the Qutub Minar.

Where the trains go

Three services began with the opening: a weekly Rajdhani Express to Delhi, the Mizoram Express to Kolkata three times a week, and a daily intercity train to Guwahati. There are four new stations along the way, at Hortoki, Kawnpui, Mualkhang and Sairang.

People took to it quickly. When the line turned one year old in September 2026, the railways reported that more than 15 lakh passengers had travelled on it.

What it means for travellers

Mizoram has always been the state that visitors leave for "next time", mostly because it was hard to reach. Now you can board a train in Guwahati and step off in the hills, with bamboo forest and river gorges passing the window on the way in. If you have been putting Aizawl off, this is a good reason to stop.