AGARTALA, July 19 (TIWN): Railway track laying in the Agartala-Sabroom segment (110 Km) is slated to be completed by the next three years, Union Minister of State (MoS) for Statistics and Programme
Implementation, Planning and Defence Rao Inderjit Singh said.Responding to a question during the Parliament session at New Delhi,

Singh said that the deadline of completing the railway track laying work in the Agartala-Sabroom segment would be completed by March, 2017. Rao admitted that the project suffered delays due to shortage of funds allocated in the past few years. The Union Minister of State said that work of all rail projects in the NE including the extension project in Agartala-Sabroom project should be expedited.
The railway extension project of Agartala-Sabroom segment was first proposed in the 2008 Union Rail Budget during the tenure of Laloo Prasad Yadav as Minister of Railways. A fund of Rs. 1,150 crores was earmarked for the project at the time. The project was started with an initial deadline of March, 2014.
Union Minister of State Inderjit Rao further said that delay in implementation of the project caused cost escalation and the deadline had to be rescheduled.
Sources inside the Northeast Frontier railway (NFR) today said that the project cost for Agartala-Sabroom railway extension project is now estimated to be Rs. 1,741 crores.
Union Minister of State (MoS) for Railways Manoj Sinha said that Broad Gauge (BG) conversion work in Silchar-Lumding-Agartala route is nearing completion. The converted railway service would bring much help to connectivity to Tripura, Manipur and Mizoram, he said.