Agartala-Akhaura rly link to be completed by 2017

The process of laying 15.054 km long railway tracks to connect Agartala with Akhaura in Bangladesh will be completed by 2017.
A team comprising technical experts of IRCON, representatives of state government and Indian High Commission in Dhaka visited the sites of laying the tracks, Chief Engineer of NF Railway Harpal Singh said.
Of the 15.054 km track, five km would be on Indian side and the rest ten km would be in Bangladesh.
He said the team had decided that a fly over of 3.7 km would be constructed in the five km areas in Indian side to save cultivable lands and the present Detailed Project Report (DPR) would be changed.

The entire project cost would be borne by the Indian government.
He said there was meeting in NITI Ayog on June 18 last in Delhi regarding the Indo-Bangla rail project and the team visited the site to follow-up the decisions of the meeting.

New Delhi is keen to establish the rail link as it would connect West Bengal and Tripura through Bangladesh.
During Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit to New Delhi in January 2010, India and Bangladesh had agreed to lay the tracks between Akhaura and Agartala.
The 15-km-long Agartala-Akhaura railway route would connect Indian Railways with the Bangladesh Railways through the North-East which would improve connectivity and boost trade between the two countries.

The 1,700 km distance between Agartala and Kolkata through chicken neck near Siliguri would be reduced to 350 km if passengers from here could move through Bangladesh, officials said.