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Ministry of Railways committed to speedy completion of Agartala – Akhaura Bangladesh connectivity project 


Firstdespatch.com

By  Firstdespatch Desk   Jun 24, 2023

Maligaon, Jun 23  (FD) Indian Railways is significantly working towards PM’s vision of ‘Act East Policy’ and ‘Neighborhood First Policy’ by executing several new railway line projects connecting the neighboring countries.

Constructing of the Agartala – Akhaura international connectivity rail line project between India and Bangladesh is one such of the crucial projects that is at an advance stage of completion. The works for this railway project is going on in full swing to connect Agartala, the capital city of Tripura to Akhaura in Bangladesh.

The 15.064 km long railway line (5.05 km in India and 10.014 km in Bangladesh) would link Bangladesh’s Akhaura through an international immigration station at Nischintapur, which will be a dual gauge station for both passenger and goods interchange between India and Bangladesh. 

The project includes 01 major bridge and 03 minor bridges. After completion of the project, the travel time between Agartala and Kolkata via Dhaka of about 31 hours will get reduced to 10 hours.

The new rail project will boost the bilateral relations between India and Bangladesh which will help grow small scale industries in the border area and boost tourism of the NE region, particularly, Tripura. It will also help in export and import of commodities faster and help the local producers to export their produces outside the country faster.

The anticipated cost for completion of the Indian portion under the project is Rs. 862.58 crores. The funding of the project is being done by the Ministry of DONER. Already about Rs. 708.74 crores has been provided and utilized. Allotment of the balance fund from the Ministry of DONER for completion of the project is under process.

However, to speed up work of the balance portion, Indian Railways has decided to allot Rs. 153.84 crores from its own budget proactively. With release of the fund, the work at site is progressing in full swing.