AGARTALA, June 29 (TIWN): Construction of new platform at Agartala railway-station is in full swing and it is expected that the railway track at the Agartala railway station would be laid by October. The long awaited dream of Broad-gauge conversion works are going in full swings at various railway tracks of Agartala. The old platform has been broken and measures are adopted for the construction of the new platform at Agartala railway station. In a move to ease congestion and to accommodate more number of trains, a new platform is undergoing construction at Agartala railway station. After the successful BG (broad gauge) trial run of a diesel engine from Lumding to Silchar the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) is working hard at much more faster pace to bring Agartala under the country’s Broad Gauge Network by March 2016. The successful run of the trains on the broad-gauge track will bring sync with those in the rest of the country and Tripura is gearing up for faster connectivity and communication with several parts of the nation.

 However besides, the BG conversion work to link Agartala with other areas of the North eastern region is undergoing full swing with thousands of workers engaged to it. Though of course the monsoonal rain has brought another hurdles for the workers to undertake the work at the route. 

The NFR has suspended train services from Lumding to Silchar, Bhairavi (Mizoram), Badarpur and Agartala routes for gauge conversion work. However, the authorities have also decided to stop the railway service from Agartala to karimganj for continuing the development work at the Agartala railway station.If things fall in place, the ongoing work of BG conversion work from Lumding to Agartala via Badarpur would be completed by March 2016. 

Although the engineers had to contend with difficult hilly terrain, geologically unstable hills and difficult law and order challenges but the enthusiasm and the progress of work in laying the railway track shows that the story of meter-gauge railway track will be a history soon and Tripura will be very soon gifted with the reward of broad-gauge network. 

The ambitious railway project, which is also a national project, has 79 major bridges, 340 minor bridges, 28 railway stations and four halt stations, said a NFR source.

The commissioning of laying and constructing of Broad Gauge (BG) railway tracks of Mega Block for Kumarghat to Agartala will start from March 2016 and the commissioning of laying and constructing of Broad Gauge (BG) railway tracks will be laid by October.