AGARTALA, Jan 1 (TIWN): Tripura during the year 2016 has witnessed miracles which began from Broad-gauge and ended with 4 Express trains. At the same time, the landlocked state Tripura had seen many union minister’s arrival in state for various different-different reasons. When the Modi Govt came in power at Centre, it announced bout Broad-gauge launching in Tripura, but on that time Tripura Govt showed less interest & the Transport Minister here Manik Dey told the Centre that it should focus on re-set the meter-gauge instead of running after broad gauge line. Many comments about ‘broad-gauge’ as an ‘imaginative-projects’ also thrown to the Central Govt.
However, breaking down all the obstacles on January 13 the same Transport Minister Manik Dey had received the BG train along with the coaches at Agartala Railway station. The, Agartala-Udaipur first broad gauge engine also ran into soil of Udaipur on March 15.

In 1 year of Modi Govt’s ruling Tripura got 4 express trains, as Tripura Sundari Express train & Kanchanjunga Express train are already function at full wave. More 2 trains were announced ahead of Diwali by NFR.

After it got Tripura Sundari Express Train & Kanchanjunga Express trains, the broad-gauge lines included a Guwahati-Silchar weekly special train, a weekly train between Guwahati and Agartala and a weekly train in the Dibrugarh-Agartala route.

Suresh Prabhu during Tripura’s 1st express train inauguration said, “I never saw such a crowd in my life in such a programme !”. “It’s a moment of proud, as now nobody can say that Delhi is far away as Tripura Sundari Train has decreased the distance”, said Suresh Prabhu. However, the action for Modi Govt. specially for North east region will not be ended here. This is just the beginning, said Prabhu. “Along with Tripura Sundari Express many express trains will come in Tripura soon. Now his words have been proven as true.

He further added,  “When the whole state will be benefited with railway why the Northeast would be lagged behind?”, said Prabhu. He also said, “In 2- 3 years, the budget has been increased a lot. In 2014-15 it was 5,489 crores, in 2015-16 it was 6,100 crores, in 2016-17 the target will be atleats Rs. 7,000 crores. Thus every year 1000 crores are increasing… which will further increase in 17-18 budget.

However, recently  Rail Development Authority (RDA) disclosed that large amounts of momentary resources are being earmarked for funding developmental projects in NER. The Present Govt has allocated a total of INR53,706 (USD8.9 billion) for the FY 2014-2015 for the largely underdeveloped regions of North-east India. RDA also disclosed that the total investment for NE is more than the loan taken by India from banks. 

Moreover, Indo-Bangla railway project has also got momentum during this year-2016, making Tripura the way to South-East-Asia. Now the people here waiting till February when promised estimated budget of more than Rs. 8,000 crores for NE would be declared.