AGARTALA, Aug 10 (TIWN): As promised by Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, the special trains are to carry oil tankers for Tripura from Aug 12. During the inauguration of Agartala-Delhi express train at Agartala Railway Station, demand raised from CPI-M, the ruling party in Tripura for special trains to carry oil tankers for Tripura following 2 months of petrol scarcity, and Suresh Prabhu, Central Union Railway Minister had immediately announced “I was not at all acknowledged about this demand, tell me what you want”—and thus finally after a completing few unfinished works on railway tracks, the oil tankers are to arrive in Tripura via train. However, the demand raised by Tripura Govt. had put the Central govt. and NFR suddenly under pressure as much disputes are going on with the NFR and IOC for sending Oil in Tripura via Train. Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu also held meeting with Tripura Chief Secretary, but the immediate solution is not visible yet. Taking this opportunity to play dirty politics, CPI-M blamed railways for its non-cooperation with Tripura. Fulfilling the promise made by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu at Agartala on 1 st August to help the state of Tripura mitigate the fuel crisis, the Northeast Frontier Railway will start a Roll On Roll Off (RoRo) service to carry trucks loaded with fuel on flat-wagon goods train from August 12.

However, Tripura Govt. didn’t confirm that it will help NFR to sort out the ‘unloading’ problems.Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, Ministers, MPs all demanded fuel transport via Train on the occasion of Agartala-New Delhi Express Train inauguration’. 

In the first lot 30 DBKM (flat bedded) wagons with each having a capacity to carry two loaded trucks will be placed at Bhanga.

Fuel tanker trucks will be loaded on these by means of an end-loading ramp. The tankers will be securely fixed on the wagon floor to ensure safety during movement. Thefirst such goods train will leave Bhanga near Badarpur at 11.00 hrs to reach Churaibari in Tripura 44 km away.

The road connecting Tripura with Assam had been in very poor shape creating serious bottleneck in transportation of commodities including fuel into Tripura. This had resulted in serious fuel crisis in Tripura. The RoRo scheme introduced by the Railways will help the loaded trucks to piggyback on goods train to bypass the damaged national highway near Churaibari. This will bring much relief to the common man in Tripura.

The RoRo service, first introduced in Konkan Railway in 1999, is being introduced in N. F. Railway for the first time.

Although military movement have been done in the past on flat wagons, this is for the first time that commercial goods movement is being done by RoRo mode.

The road condition in remote areas often gets affected during inclement weather in NE and RoRo will prove to be a novel means to help continue supply lines in times of crisis. The service is designed to provide connectivity to loaded road vehicles where road connectivity is poor or does not exist. This service is economical, helps in reducing carbon emission and reduces traffic on roads. [Below is a file picture of RoRo service in other zones of Indian Railways.

But BJP led Central Govt. has shut CPI-M’s badmouthing again by fulfilling the latest demand of running RoRo (Roll On Roll Off ) service to end fuel crisis which caused due to Tripura PWD's failure to maintain NH-8(44).