Work on new India-Bangladesh railway link from 2015

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An agreement to implement the new railway project was signed between India's former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina during her visit to India in January 2010.

AGARTALA: The Indian and Bangladeshi governments will start work early next year on a new rail link to ease surface transport, officials said here on Tuesday.

India will build a 15km railway tracks linking Tripura's capital Agartala with Bangladesh's southeastern city of Akhaurah, an important railway junction connected to Chittagong port, resource-rich Sylhet and Dhaka.

An Indian delegation and a Bangladeshi team attended the third meeting of the Agartala-Akhaurah railway link project steering committee here Tuesday. They will go for a field inspection on the Indian side on Wednesday.

"The work for new Agartala-Akhaurah railway link will start early next year. The DPR (detailed project report) will be finalized within a month or so," India's external affairs ministry's joint secretary Alok K Sinha told reporters after the meeting.

Sinha, who led the Indian delegation, said: "... We will mutually sort out if any problem comes up ... The fourth meeting of the project steering committee will be held in Dhaka in December."

The Bangladesh delegation was led by its railway ministry's joint secretary Sunil Chandra Pal.

Pal said: "With the setting up of the new railway connectivity between India and Bangladesh, people of two countries will benefit as they will come closer. Men and materials will be ferried very smoothly."

The Maitree Express service connecting Kolkata with Dhaka was launched on April 14, 2008.


An agreement to implement the railway project was signed between India's former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Bangladesh Premier Sheikh Hasina during her visit to India in January 2010.

"Total cost of the proposed project is estimated at Rs 252 crore. The Indian Railway Construction Company (IRCON) would lay the new railway tracks on both sides of the border," a senior official (construction) of the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) told reporters.

Of the 15km rail line, 5km of tracks fall in the Indian territory.

The official said: "With the establishment of the new railway link, northeast India will be connected to the Chittagong international sea port by rail."

He said: "The proposed rail link will not only improve bilateral ties but also help in establishing connectivity with inaccessible areas in the northeast as journey from Kolkata to Tripura and other northeastern states via Bangladesh will save cost, time and distance travelled."

Children running along railway line in Norshingdi, Bangladesh. (Getty Images photo)

Surface connectivity is an important factor as India's northeastern states are surrounded by Bangladesh, Myanmar, Bhutan and China. The only land route to these states from within India is through Assam and West Bengal. But it passes through over 70 per cent hilly terrain with steep roads and multiple hairpin bends.

India has for long been seeking land, sea and rail access through Bangladesh for ferrying goods and heavy machinery to its northeast from abroad and other parts of the country.

Agartala is 1,650km from Kolkata and 2,637km from New Delhi via Guwahati and West Bengal, whereas the distance between the Tripura capital and Kolkata through Bangladesh is just about 350km.

The NFR is now laying tracks to connect Tripura's southern most border town Sabroom, 135km south of here. From Sabroom, the Chittagong international sea port is just 72km.

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Work on new India-Bangladesh railway link from 2015 - The Times of India