AGARTALA, Jan 12 (TIWN): Union Minister for railway Manoj Sinha, in a visit to the state on Tuesday inspected the work progress of BG conversion at Nishchintpur BOP Indo-Bangla border area to monitor the Indo-Bangla rail link work. However, Union Minister for railway Manoj Sinha was accompanied by DM west Millind Ramteke, SDM Manik Lal Das, State observer Sunil Deodar , BJP state president Biplab Deb and other railway officials. It is to be mentioned here that Union Minister for railway Manoj Sinha and others in a visit to the Nishchintpur BOP Indo-Bangla border area inspected the area to see the progress in the proposed rail connectivity between Agartala and Gangasagar (Bangladesh).

The Indian Railway Construction Company Ltd (IRCON) and the NFR have jointly initiated the fixing of alignment for the proposed Agartala-Gangasagar rail link.Indian and Bangladeshi governments have decided to start a new rail link to ease surface transport. 

India will build a 15-km railway tracks linking Tripura’s capital Agartala with Bangladesh’s southeastern city of Akhaura, an important railway junction connected to Chittagong port, resource-rich Sylhet and Dhaka. 

An agreement to implement the railway project was signed between India’s former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Bangladesh Premier Sheikh Hasina during her visit to India in January 2010. Total cost of the proposed project is estimated at Rs.252 crore. The Indian Railway Construction Company (IRCON) would lay the new railway tracks on both sides of the border. Of the 15 km rail line, five km of tracks fall in the Indian Territory.

India has been keen to establish the Agartala-Akhaura rail link as it would facilitate easier connectivity between West Bengal and northeastern states through Bangladesh. It has offered to construct the railway link.

Surface connectivity is an important factor as the landlocked northeastern states are surrounded by Bangladesh, Myanmar, Bhutan and China and the only land route to these states from within India is through Assam and West Bengal. But this route passes through over 70 percent hilly terrain with steep roads and multiple hairpin bends.

For ferrying goods and heavy machinery to the northeast from abroad and other parts of the country, India has for long been seeking land, sea and rail access through Bangladesh.

Agartala, for instance, is 1,650 km from Kolkata and 2,637 km from New Delhi via Guwahati and West Bengal, whereas the distance between the Tripura capital and Kolkata through Bangladesh is just about 350 km