Indian Railways committed to speedy completion of Agartala-Akhaura connectivity project

The Indian Railways is significantly working towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of ‘Act East Policy’ and ‘Neighbourhood First Policy’ by executing several new railway line projects connecting the neighbouring countries.

Construction of the Agartala - Akhaura international connectivity rail line project between India and Bangladesh is one such of the crucial projects that are at an advanced stage of completion.

The works for this railway project are going on in full swing to connect Agartala, the capital city of Tripura to Akhaura in Bangladesh.

Sabyasachi De, CPRO of Northeast Frontier Railway (NF Railway) said, “The 15.064 km long railway line (5.05 km in India and 10.014 km in Bangladesh) would link Bangladesh’s Akhaura through an international immigration station at Nischintapur, which will be a dual gauge station for both passenger and goods interchange between India and Bangladesh.”

He also said that the project includes 1 major bridge and 3 minor bridges.

“The project includes 1 major bridge and 3 minor bridges. After completion of the project, the travel time between Agartala and Kolkata via Dhaka of about 31 hours, travel time will get reduced to 10 hours. The new rail project will boost the bilateral relations between India and Bangladesh which will help grow small-scale industries in the border area and boost tourism in the NE region, particularly, Tripura. It will also help in the export and import of commodities faster and help the local producers to export their produces outside the country faster,” Sabyasachi De said.

He said that the anticipated cost for completion of the Indian portion of the project is Rs 862.58 crore (over Rs 8.62 billion). The funding of the project is being done by the Ministry of DONER.

“Already about Rs 708.74 crore (over 7.08 billion) has been provided and utilised. Allotment of the balance fund from the Ministry of DONER for the completion of the project is under process. However, to speed up the work of the balance portion, Indian Railways has decided to allot Rs 153.84 crore (over 1.53 billion) from its own budget proactively. With the release of the fund, the work at the site is progressing in full swing,” Sabyasachi De said.