BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 27. The Agartala-Akhaura
rail line challenge, which can join India’s Northeastern state of
Tripura with Bangladesh, is anticipated to be operational by the tip
of this 12 months, ThePrint has learnt.
The 15-km-long challenge, which was sanctioned in 2003
and signed by each international locations in 2013, goals to boost bilateral
commerce and tourism, in addition to cut back journey time between Agartala
and Kolkata by way of Dhaka. The basis stone was laid in 2016. Once
operational, it’s going to cut back the journey time between Agartala and
Kolkata, by way of Dhaka to 10 hours from 31 hours, Sabyasachi De, Chief
Public Relations Officer (CPRO) of Northeast Frontier Railway, informed
ThePrint Friday.
Of the 15 km hyperlink, 33.52 % (5.05 kilometers) is
in India and the remaining 10.014 kilometers is in Bangladesh. The
challenge was initially imagined to be accomplished by 2020 however acquired
delayed due to a bunch of causes, together with the Covid-19
pandemic.
The challenge is a part of India’s “Act East Policy”,
which goals to advertise financial cooperation and develop strategic
ties with international locations within the Asia-Pacific area. The Northeast has
been earmarked as a precedence area on this coverage.
The railway line will hyperlink Akhaura Junction railway
station in Bangladesh with Agartala by means of a world
immigration station at Nischintapur (that falls on the
India-Bangladesh border), which shall be a twin gauge station for
each passenger and items interchange.
“The Indian Railways portion has a broad gauge system
whereas the portion in Akhaura has a metre gauge system,” De
defined.
In a broad gauge, the gap between the 2 tracks
is 1.676m, whereas within the metre gauge system, the gap stands at
one metre.
So far, 85 % of labor on the Indian facet of the
railway line has been accomplished whereas near 75 % of the
work on the Bangladesh facet is over, although “some situation has cropped
up relating to its funding”, a supply within the railways ministry, who
wished to not be named, informed ThePrint.