New Delhi: The Agartala-Akhaura rail line project, which will connect India’s Northeastern state of Tripura with Bangladesh, is expected to be operational by the end of this year, ThePrint has learnt.
The 15-km-long project, which was sanctioned in 2003 and signed by both countries in 2013, aims to enhance bilateral trade and tourism, as well as reduce travel time between Agartala and Kolkata via Dhaka. The foundation stone was laid in 2016. Once operational, it will reduce the travel time between Agartala and Kolkata, via Dhaka to 10 hours from 31 hours, Sabyasachi De, Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) of Northeast Frontier Railway, told ThePrint Friday.
Of the 15 km link, 33.52 per cent (5.05 km) is in India and the remaining 10.014 km is in Bangladesh. The project was originally supposed to be completed by 2020 but got delayed because of a host of reasons, including the Covid-19 pandemic.
The project is part of India’s “Act East Policy”, which aims to promote economic cooperation and develop strategic ties with countries in the Asia-Pacific region. The Northeast has been earmarked as a priority region in this policy.
The railway line will link Akhaura Junction railway station in Bangladesh with Agartala through an international immigration station at Nischintapur (that falls on the India-Bangladesh border), which will be a dual gauge station for both passenger and goods interchange.
“The Indian Railways portion has a broad gauge system while the portion in Akhaura has a metre gauge system,” De explained.
In a broad gauge, the distance between the two tracks is 1.676m, while in the metre gauge system, the distance stands at one metre.
So far, 85 per cent of work on the Indian side of the railway line has been completed while close to 75 per cent of the work on the Bangladesh side is over, though “some issue has cropped up regarding its funding”, a source in the railways ministry, who wished to not be named, told ThePrint.
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‘Will boost the bilateral relations’
The Indian Railways has allotted Rs 153.84 crore to enhance the work of the remaining portion of the railway link, De said in a statement issued Friday.
The estimated cost for the completion of the railway link on the Indian side is Rs 862.58 crore, and is funded by the Development of North Eastern Region (DONER) Ministry. Of the total amount, Rs 708.74 crore has been provided, he added.
“With this rail link, we are looking into getting passenger traffic, and in the goods segment, we expect a lot of FMCG products. We also get virtual access to Chittagong, which is the deep-sea port in Bangladesh. Once this line is operational, we might get that traffic as well,” De told ThePrint.
As of now, there are five broad gauge routes connecting India and Bangladesh, namely Gede-Darshana, Benapole-Petrapole, Singhabad-Rohanpur, Radhikapur-Birol and Haldibari-Chilahati.
There are also three passenger trains running between India and Bangladesh — Kolkata-Dhaka Maitree Express, Kolkata-Khulna Bandhan Express and New Jalpaiguri-Dhaka Mitali Express.
According to De, the upcoming 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 Northeast region, particularly Tripura.
“It will also help in the export and import of commodities faster and help the local producers to export their products outside the country faster,” he added.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)
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