AGARTALA, July 28 (TIWN): Railways in Tripura have always remained a contradictory issue since the beginning. First with the issue of laying railway tracks in Tripura and then taking 8 long years to convert in into BG tracks.Now, when the tracks are being laid dilemma has hit the inauguration of Agartala- Delhi Express train. State government clamours about inauguration of the train on July 31 and state BJP claims that the train will be inaugurated on August1, whereas NFR has so far not confirmed anything related to the inauguration of the train neither any notification is circulated. Talking to TIWN correspondent, NFR construction official Pratap Singh said that there are chances to run the train on July31 but nothing is confirmed yet. It is to be mentioned here that as of now neither any notification is being circulated by NFR. Apart from the date, nothing is yet clarified regarding the commencement of the train. The present status says that there is least chance to run the train on July 31 and neither there any chance on August 1st.

It is nothing but a game plan of Tripura government where they are trying to bluff the people by diverting the concentration of the people from dilapidated nation al highway to the railway service as the today national highway has turned immovable due to the negligence of the state PWD department when they took over from the central.

It will be not less than a miracle if BG Express train starts running from July31.

It is to  be mentioned here that the inauguration of the express train service was delayed due to the collapse of the track at Margendisa  in Assam, but now the diversion track which was prepared by NFR is completely ready to mark the journey of the Agartala-Delhi train service .

However, adding another milestone in the history of Tripura, the land-locked state has finally made its entry in the BG railway map of the country.

Improving the transport and connectivity in the landlocked Tripura of the northeast region is one of the top most priorities of the government. A lot of focus is being laid to enhance railway connectivity in the region.

In the first phase, the 210-km Lumding-Silchar gauge conversion project was completed last year. In the second phase, the 227-km Badarpur-Agartala gauge conversion was scheduled to be completed in March but was completed three months earlier. With the completion of gauge conversion work right up to Agartala, the Tripura capital was connected with the country’s broad gauge railway network through Guwahati at a distance of about 600 km.

With the everyday progress in the conversion work, the common mass of the state is observing a ray of hope for faster communication and transportation with the introduction of express train in the coming days.