AGARTALA, Aug 4 (TIWN): Special Passenger Trains (05666/05665) service from Dharmanagar to Agartala will be start operation from 7th Aug. It has been decided by General Manager NorthEast Frontier Railway in a notification to run one pair of passenger Special Train daily between Dharmanagar to Agartala.

Already the weekly train service was started from Agartala to New Delhi.

The excitement over the “direct rail link” is as palpable in Delhi as in Agartala.

On July 31, hundreds of people landed up at the Agartala railway station to witness railway minister Suresh Prabhu and minister of state for railways Rajen Gohain flag off the Tripura Sundari Express, the state’s first direct broad gauge rail link to the national capital and which has been named after Tripura Sundari, a revered Kali temple built in 1501 by Maharaja Dhanya Manikya. Many women blew the traditional conch shells to mark the moment while people gathered at many places in the villages along the railway line to watch the train go past.

“No wonder everyone is excited about it as people had been demanding railways services and a direct train to Delhi for the last 67 years,” said Jiten Choudhury, one of two Lok Sabha members from Tripura. Choudhury’s party, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), which has been in power in the state for over two decades, led a popular agitation in the 1980s to fulfill the demand. At that time, Left leader Nripen Chakraborty was the chief minister of the first ever CPI-M government in the state.

“Our party took up the need to include Tripura in the country’s railway map with every government at the Centre. We did it this time too. I myself met Suresh Prabhu on the issue. The Centre conceded to it this time. It is a popular demand, so ultimately, the credit for it must go to the people of Tripura,” Jiten Chowdhury told TIWN.