India-Bangladesh Rail Link Via Agartala To Be Operational By End Of 2023
Date
6/27/2023 3:05:26 PM
(MENAFN- trend news agency) baku, azerbaijan, june 27. 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 percent (5.05 kilometers) is
in india and the remaining 10.014 kilometers 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 percent of work on the indian side of the
railway line has been completed while close to 75 percent 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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