Sinlung /
31 March 2011

Agartala-Akhaura Rail Project Gaining Ground

tripuraAgartala, Mar 31 : The ball has started rolling in favour of the historic Indo-Bangla rail connectivity with the Railway Ministry contemplating to undertake topological survey for the extension work. The alignment for the proposed Agartala to Akhaura (Bangladesh) has already been accepted by the Bangladesh Government, the Assembly was informed here on Tuesday.

An amount of Rs 251 crore will be spent for commissioning the Indo-Bangla rail link and the project will be financed by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and DoNER, said Industries and Commerce Minister Jitendra Chowdhury in reply to a notice moved by MLAs Basudev Majumder and Rita Kar Chowdhury.

He said that the project is expected to get implemented within the next three to four years. The General Manager of Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR), Construction had visited Akhaura to oversee the alignment of the dream railway project.

Chowdhury informed the House that the Bangladesh Government is also seriously thinking of finalising a modality to allow India, Nepal and Bhutan to use Chittagong Sea Port. It may be noted that Chief Minister Manik Sarkar had urged the Bangaldesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to allow Tripura to use Chittagong Port during his visit to Dhaka in March last year. The issue also came up for discussion during the visit of Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dr Dipu Moni during his visit to Agartala in November last year.

On setting up of a bridge on river Feni, he said that a joint team had already visited the proposed site and an organisation has been asked to prepare a detailed project report at the earliest.

The bridge would connect Sabroom in South district with Bangladesh’s Ramgarh directly ushering a wide opportunity for bilateral trade. As part of goodwill gesture, the State Government would bear expenditure for setting up the bridge.

He further said the re-opening of waterway between Tripura and Bangladesh is also under active consideration of the Ministry of Shipping. The Centre has already incorporated it in the Northeast Vision 2020.

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