Indian railway ministry allocates over Tk200 crore for Tripura-Bangladesh railway project

The Indian Railway Ministry has recently allocated Tk202.99 crores (Rs153.84 crores) for the ongoing construction of a railway line connecting Tripura in India to Bangladesh, reports The Economic Times.

"The Tk1138.18 crore Agartala-Akhaura (Bangladesh) railway project is expected to be operational by the end of this year or early next year," the report said.

Northeast Frontier Railway's (NFR) Chief Public Relations Officer Sabyasachi De stated, "The funding of the project is being done by the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DONER) and already about Rs708.74 crores [Tk935.18 crores] of the anticipated cost has been provided and utilised."

He added that the rail project would boost relations between the two countries, and facilitate the growth of small businesses and tourism in the border regions. It would also boost imports and export between the countries.

Spanning a length of 15.064km, the railway line comprises 5.05km in India and 10.014km in Bangladesh.

It would link Bangladesh's Akhaura to Tripura's Agartala through an international immigration station at Nischintapur, which would be a dual gauge station for both passenger and goods interchange between India and Bangladesh, according to the report.

The project includes one major bridge and three minor bridges.

"After completion of the project, the travel time between Agartala and Kolkata via Dhaka of about 31 hours would get reduced to 10 hours," Sabyasachi said.

Officials from the NFR in Agartala have reported that over 90% of the work on the Indian side of the Agartala-Akhaura railway project has already been completed.