General Manager of Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR)
H.K. Jaggi on Thursday said that the Broad Gauge (BG) rail service will be
inaugurated by the second or third week of this month from Agartala.
He was speaking to media at the state secretariat
after meeting Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar and Transport Minister Manik
Dey before finalizing the date of the inauguration of the BG service.
The NFR GM had arrived here to review the
preparation for flagging off BG train service from Agartala and inspection of
the Agartala-Udaipur line said that due to heavy rain followed by landslip
there has been damage of the rail line in the Silchar-Lumding sector and which
is delaying the inauguration.
On the Agartala-Akhaura (Indo-Bangla) railway
project, Jaggi said the Ministry Of Development Of North Eastern Region has
already released the first installment of Rs 150 crore out of the total Rs 580
crores and by this month NFR is likely to get the fund and after which land
acquisition work in the India part shall start.
He informed that out of the total 15 km
international rail project the 5 km India part of the project will cost around
Rs 580 crores which will be totally borne by NEC while the remaining 10 km in
Bangladesh will cost Rs 360 crores to be funded by the India External Affairs
Ministry.
Jaggi further added he had requester the Tripura
government to expedite the process of land acquisition for timely completion of
the project.
The Agartala-Akhaura railway project was finalised
in January 2010 when Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina met her then
Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh during her visit to New Delhi.
Later Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed the
Rs.940-crore railway project with Hasina during his visit to Dhaka in June
2014.
The Agartala-Akhaura railway project is also in the
consideration of the Trans-Asia Railway network connecting the South Asian
nations with Europe through India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq.
The NITI Aayog had decided put in place the vital
railway project between India and Bangladesh by December 2017
The 1,650-km distance between Agartala and Kolkata
would be reduced to only 550 km once the new rail track is linked through
Bangladesh.
The Indian government had announced it will bear
the entire cost of the 15-km railway project. Of the 15 km, 5 km fall in the
Indian territory and the remaining in Bangladesh.
Source: PTI
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