The construction work of the rail line connecting Tripura’s capital Agartala and Akhaura in Bangladesh will be completed by September.
This was informed by Tripura Food, Transport and Tourism Minister Sushanta Chowdhury on Friday.
Chowdhury said that 85 percent of the physical work on the 12.5 kilometres long rail line on the Indian side has been completed while 73 percent physical work on the Bangladesh side has been completed.
The Tourism Minister also said that the consultancy project to prepare a Detailed Project Report (DPR) for development of Agartala as an international railway station has already been awarded. It is expected that the foundation stone for the construction work will be laid down in the next two to three months.
With launching of the railway services, the travel time in Agartala-Kolkata route via Dhaka will be reduced to 10 hours from 31 hours.
It may be mentioned that, Minister for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) G Kishan Reddy visited Tripura on April 11 to inspect the Agartala-Akhaura New Rail Link Project. He held meetings with the officials of IRCON to review the progress of the work of the rail link.
The Ministry of Development of North East Region is funding the railway line from Agartala to Nischintapur; whereas the Ministry of External Affairs is funding for the rail line from Nischintapur to Gangasagar which is in Bangladesh.
