AGARTALA, September 15 (TIWN): Finally the northeastern states of Tripura set to get connected by India’s broad gauge rail line by March 2016 with which it would be the second city in NE India after Guwahati. Agartala was the first state capital in the northeast to come on the country's rail map in 2008 through a meter gauge track. Railway Board Chairman A K Mittal said the conversion of meter gauge into broad gauge would be completed by March next year if everything falls in the right track, said State Chief Secretary Y P Singh quoting Mittal’s statement.

Mittal said Tripura's Gomati and Sabroom border town, 135 km from Agartala, would be connected by broad gauge railway network by March 2017.

According to the official source, all northeastern states of the country, including Sikkim, would be connected through broad gauge byMarch 31, 2020. The move has come up as part of centre’s initiative to upgrade the country’s railway infrastructure.

The foundation of the much-delayed gauge conversion project -- Lumding to Silchar and Silchar to Agartala -- was laid by the then prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda in Silchar in 1996. In 2004, the then prime minister Manmohan Singh declared the project a national one.

The railways faced severe criticism for the delay in completing the Rs.5,185-crore project that is considered to be a lifeline for southern Assam, Tripura, Mizoram, and Manipur.

Meanwhile, Tripura would remain out of the rail network for more than six months as the NFR would undertake gauge conversion work from September 20. The entire conversion work on the Badarpur-Kumarghat-Agartala section ought to be completed by March 31, 2016.