Agartala: The Agartala-Akhaura railway project connecting India with Bangladesh is expected to be completed within the next four to five months, Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) of Lumding division under Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) Jogendra Singh Lakhra said on Tuesday.
Speaking at a press conference in Agartala, DRM Lakhra said the Indian Railways has been continuously taking proactive steps for enhancing railway connectivity and providing state-of-the-art railway to the people of the landlocked state of Tripura which are heavily dependent on the railway for their transportation needs.
"In the last few years, railways have focused on improving tracks and station infrastructure in Tripura providing additional passenger train services improving the movement of goods in the region as well as value-added services in the stations and trains. The work of international connectivity with Bangladesh through the Agartala-Akhaura project is also going on, and expected to be completed in the next 4-5 months," the official said.
He further informed that keeping in line with this trend, and to satisfy the persistent demands from the people of Tripura for additional train services to Guwahati in Assam and Kolkata in West Bengal, the railways have extended the train up to Agartala.
Also read: 'Agartala-Akhaura Railway project to be completed by September 2022'
"This train, which earlier used to run between Kolkata and Guwahati, will now operate between Agartala to Kolkata via Guwahati. The Railways has also been focusing on providing Shatabdi Express services in Tripura for speedy intercity day travel. The first ever Shatabdi Express train connecting Jiribam in Manipur to Agartala in Tripura was started recently, which connected some important and historic towns like Badarpur, New Karimganj of Assam and Dharmanagar, Ambassa in Tripura," he said.
He further said work on electrification of the Lumding-Agartala section is going on and is expected to be completed by December 2023. "Further, survey has been completed for new line between Dharmanagar to Pencharthal up to Belonia via Kamalpur-Khowai-Agartala of a total of 178.72 km. It has been decided to construct a world-class station in Agartala with modern state-of-the-art facilities. Survey work for the same is going on," the DMR said.
Apart from these, the official informed that modular stalls under the 'One Station One Product' scheme, to showcase the indigenous products of Tripura are soon going to be installed at other stations including Udaipur, Belonia, Sabroom, Ambassa, Kumarghat, and Dharmanagar. Works for additional goods terminals at Sekerkote and Agartala have already been shortlisted, and a proposal for one additional goods line at Agartala is also being processed.
