Badharghat (West Tripura): A new 44.76-km broad gauge rail line from Agartala to temple city Udaipur was recently inaugurated by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu through video-conference from New Delhi.
This is part of the India government’s initiative to connect the last border town of Tripura, Sabroom, by rail network after spending Rs 1,200 crore to secure access to the Chittagong international sea port in Bangladesh.
Tripura’s MP Jitendra Choudhury, PWD and Health Minister Badal Choudhury and Transport Minister Manik Dey, among others, attended the inaugural function at the Agartala railway station.
Large number of passengers had gathered to be a part of the inaugural ride which according to them is historical.
They expressed that the train service is like their long time dream come true and shall not only be convenient and cheap but also safe.
Northeast is a priority area for the central government which proposed to make the region a most developed area.
To resolve the problems and backwardness of the northeastern region the railway budget for region was increased from Rs 2,021 crore to Rs 5,340 crore in the current year’s (2016-17) budget and is expected to further increased in the upcoming financial year (2017-18).
The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) has undertaken ambitious plans to connect by 2020 all the state capitals of the northeastern states by rail network.
Beside that there is a proposed rail link between Tripura and Bangladesh so that northeastern states can be easily connected by railway with Myanmar to access the railway communications of the southeast Asia.
ANI