The railway line between Akhaura to Agartala will become operational by June next year, said the Bangladesh Railway Minister Md. Nurual Islam Sujan. The Minister made this announcement at zero point near Agartala on Sunday. The Minister said that the Akhaura-Agartala railway line is very important for both the countries. He said its opening will enhance connectivity between both the countries. It will increase trade and commerce between the two countries as well as facilitate movement of people.
The Minister assured that there would be no more extension of time to make the line functional as most of the work on this route has been completed by now. The remaining work will be completed by June to make the line functional, said the Minister.
The Akhaura-Agartala railway project is being implemented with the Indian grant. The total length of the railway line is about 15 kilometres out of which 6.8 kilometres falls in the territory of Bangladesh.
Of the total length of 12.24 km, 6.78 km falls in Bangladesh territory and remaining 5.46 km of the portion is in Tripura.
The Maligaon (Guwahati) headquartered Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) is the nodal agency of the Rs 1,000 crore Agartala-Akhaura railway project, which was finalised in January 2010 when Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina met then Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during her visit to New Delhi.
The NFR officials in Agartala said that over 80 per cent work of the railway project on the Indian side has already been completed.
Once the Agartala-Akhaura railway project is commissioned, people of the northeastern states, especially Tripura, and southern part of Assam and Mizoram, can go to Kolkata by rail saving 22 hours of travel time.
Currently, the people of the region, especially those in Tripura and its adjoining areas, go to Kolkata via Guwahati by rail, spending more than 38 hours.
