Agartala, June 4 (TIWN): The third meeting of Project Steering Committee (PSC) for the Agartala-Akhaura railway project would be held at Agartala from June 17. The two day meeting is slated to discuss next course of action after the ongoing land demarcation and land acquisition for the project on both sides of the border is over, official sources said.

IRCON, a central government PSU, was entrusted with the responsibility to handle all operations of construction of the railway lines between Akhaura and Agartala over a distance of 15 Km – a project that would literally change the way bilateral relations between India and Bangladesh are defined today. Sources inside IRCON said that over 4.5 Km land area out of the 5 Km stretch of rail-line required for the project in Tripura sector was demarcated. Acquisition is slated to commence shortly.

The Government of India sanctioned a fund of Rs. 252 crores for the 15 Km rail-line project connecting Agartala railway station in India with Akhaura rail station via Gangasagar railway station in Bangladesh plying through Siddhi Ashram, Badharghat Martripalli and Charipara in the outskirts of Agartala city. The rail line would be connected with its counterpart in Bangla through Nischintapur in the Indo-Bangla borderline.

The first meeting of the Project Steering Committee was held in May, 2013 at Akhaura international checkpost near Agartala on the day. Bangladesh delegation which attended the meeting was led by Nur Mohammad Mazumder, Deputy Commissioner and District Magistrate of Brahmanbariya district of Bangladesh while the India side was led by Kiran Gitte, the then District Magistrate of the West Tripura district while Bijoy Nag, Superintendent of Police and top officials of the BSF and Bangladesh Border Guards (BGB). The second meet was held in September last year.

According to the MoU signed between Dhaka and New Delhi over the Agartala-Akhaura rail link, the Peoples’ Republic of Bangladesh was supposed to implement the project on other side of the border while External Affairs Ministry of India was supposed to be paying for the project. The project of 15.054 Km length would be built in meter gauge structure with facilities for Broad-Gauge service.