AGARTALA, June 23 (TIWN): To prepare a road map for the flag off ceremony of Delhi-Agartala BG Express railway service Minister Manik Dey along with NFR Chief Engineer Harpal Singh visited Agartala railway station on Saturday. Visiting at Agartala railway station Minister Manik Dey along with NFR official took a note of the arrangements for the flag off ceremony of express train service. Minister Manik Dey was accompanied by Chief Engineer Harpal Singh, Transport Secretary Samarjit Bhowmik, Chief Secretary YP Singh and others. After a passage of few months, there is a ray of hope that people of Tripura will finally hear the whistle of BG express train on July 31. If everything falls in its right place, the BG Express train will chug into the soil of Tripura on July 31. Transport Minister Manik Dey said that Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu is likely to inaugurate the first BG Express train service from Agartala railway station and he will also lay the foundation stone for the Indo Bangla rail service. He further said that Union Minister Suresh Prabhu would be arriving in the state on July31 for the inauguration of the Delhi-Agartala railway service.

However, NFR Chief Engineer Harpal Singh also arrived in the state for reviewing the preliminary preparation of the inauguration of the Agartala- Delhi train service from Agartala railway station,

He also said that CM Manik Sarkar is likely to remain present in the foundation laying stone ceremony of Indo-Bangla rail link.

It is to  be mentioned here that the inauguration of the express train service was delayed due to the collapse of the track at Margendisa  in Assam, but now the diversion track which was prepared by NFR is completely ready to mark the journey of the Agartala-Delhi train service .

However, adding another milestone in the history of Tripura, the land-locked state has finally made its entry in the BG railway map of the country.

Improving the transport and connectivity in the landlocked Tripura of the northeast region is one of the top most priorities of the government. A lot of focus is being laid to enhance railway connectivity in the region.

In the first phase, the 210-km Lumding-Silchar gauge conversion project was completed last year. In the second phase, the 227-km Badarpur-Agartala gauge conversion was scheduled to be completed in March but was completed three months earlier. With the completion of gauge conversion work right up to Agartala, the Tripura capital was connected with the country’s broad gauge railway network through Guwahati at a distance of about 600 km.

With the everyday progress in the conversion work, the common mass of the state is observing a ray of hope for faster communication and transportation with the introduction of express train in the coming days.

Days are not so far when after the BG (Broad gauge) Express train service,  will also run on the newly converted BG track.