Agartala, January 19 (TIWN): “Work on a new rail link between India and Bangladesh will start very soon to ease surface transport,” says Highway, Transport and Bridge Minister of Bangladesh, Obaidur Kader. "With the setting up of the new railway connectivity between India and Bangladesh, people of two countries will benefit as they will come closer. Men and materials will be ferried very smoothly, Kader added. It is to be mentioned here that, India will build a 15km railway tracks linking Tripura's capital Agartala with Bangladesh's southeastern city of Akhaurah, an important railway junction connected to Chittagong port, resource-rich Sylhet and Dhaka.

In the meantime, An Indian delegation and a Bangladeshi team attended the third meeting of the Agartala-Akhaurah railway link project steering committee.

A team of officials of IRCON (Indian Railway Construction Company) have recently visited Dhaka and held talks with Bangladesh government and railway ministry officials to finalize alignment of the 13-km Agartala-Akhaurah connecting rail line. After 43 years, India and Bangladesh resumed regular train services in April 2008 through Geed in West Bengal’s Nadia district and Darshana in Bangladesh. The service was suspended after the 1965 war between India and Pakistan when Bangladesh was then Pakistan’s eastern part.

Earlier, an agreement to implement the railway project was signed between India's former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and Bangladesh Premier Sheikh Hasina during her visit to India on January 2010. The total cost of the proposed project is estimated at Rs 252 crore. The Indian Railway Construction Company (IRCON) would lay the new railway tracks on both sides of the border. Of the 15km rail line, 5km of tracks fall in the Indian territory. With the establishment of the new railway link, northeast India will be connected to the Chittagong international sea port by rail.

Besides, the proposed rail link will not only improve bilateral ties but also help in establishing connectivity with inaccessible areas in the northeast as journey from Kolkata to Tripura and other northeastern states via Bangladesh will save cost, time and distance travelled. Surface connectivity is an important factor as India's northeastern states are surrounded by Bangladesh, Myanmar, Bhutan and China. The only land route to these states from within India is through Assam and West Bengal. But it passes through over 70 per cent hilly terrain with steep roads and multiple hairpin bends. 

India has for long been seeking land, sea and rail access through Bangladesh for ferrying goods and heavy machinery to its northeast from abroad and other parts of the country. 

Agartala is 1,650km from Kolkata and 2,637km from New Delhi via Guwahati and West Bengal, whereas the distance between the Tripura capital and Kolkata through Bangladesh is just about 350km. The NFR is now laying tracks to connect Tripura's southern most border town Sabroom, 135km south of here. From Sabroom, the Chittagong international sea port is just 72km.