AGARTALA, June 17 (TIWN): Work for land acquisition and track laying in the proposed 15.054 Km Agartala-Akhaura international rail route is expected to start by January, 2015.
Land survey on the Indian side is complete; the work is nearing completion in the Bangladesh side as well. The Detailed Project Report (DPR) is expected to be submitted before concerned authorities by September this year, leader of the Indian delegation at the third Steering Committee meeting of Agartala-Akhaura rail project - Alok Kumar Sinha said.

Head of the Bangladesh government’s delegation Sunil Chandra Paul said that the Bangladesh Railway Ministry was working in close collaboration with IRCON, a central PSU of the Indian government in certain parts of the proposed alignment due to land ownership issues.

“Few parts of the land are public and few are private lands. We are working out the issue of ensuring a least disturbing alignment. The process is nearing completion. The Detailed Project Proforma (DPP) would be submitted shortly”, he said.

He assured that Bangladesh authorities are ready to start work for the project within the same timeframe alongwith India by December, 2014 or January, 2015.

Paul added that the fourth meeting of the Project Steering Committee would be held at Dhaka in December this year. Final decisions on implementation of few resolutions adopted at the third meeting held today.

The project of 15.054 Km length would be built in meter gauge structure with facilities for Broad-Gauge service.

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.