Dimapur, July 9: Nagaland MP Wangyuh Konyak has urged railway minister Laloo Prasad Yadav to upgrade the Dimapur station and improve security measures in and around the station following complaints from passengers.

Speaking in Parliament yesterday, the lone Lok Sabha MP from Nagaland asked the minister to introduce a new express train between Guwahati and Dimapur and to increase the reservation quota for Nagaland and Manipur and the duration of the stops of the express trains to 20 minutes.

Wangyuh, who inspected the Dimapur station recently, had promised not only to upgrade the station but also to introduce better amenities for the comfort of passengers.

Pointing out that the station catered to two states, Nagaland and Manipur, and that the flow of passengers as well as goods traffic was significantly high, Konyak told Laloo Yadav that investment for administrative and infrastructure facilities here had not kept up pace with the requirements.

“This neglect has created serious problems for the passengers as well as businessmen, who transport goods,” he said.

Konyak, who urged the railway minister to upgrade Dimapur to a divisional headquarters, said a station manager should be posted here considering the importance of the station. He said platform number two should be upgraded to ease traffic congestion.

Expressing disappointment with the reservation quota for Nagaland and Manipur, Konyak said the existing number of seats reserved for Dimapur was not adequate. “The reservations made at Lumding and Silchar from the Dimapur quota add to the crisis,” the MP said.

Wangyuh suggested that in order to meet the growing requirement of the two states, the Jana Shatabdi Express should revert to its previous schedule or more trains to Guwahati should be introduced.

The MP pointed that passengers bound for the South, especially Kerala, had to reach Guwahati a day earlier to catch their connecting trains.

“If the Trivandrum-Guwahati and Cochin-Guwahati trains are extended upto Dibrugarh, it will be of a great help to the people. They should be reconverted to superfast trains,” he said.