Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb on Thursday flagged-off passenger train services in the Dharmanagar-Agartala-Sabroom section connecting a border town along Bangladesh and the state's second largest commercial town adjoining Assam.
The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) after introducing the Diesel Electric Multiple Unit (DEMU) train services last year in eastern Assam's industrial areas Dibrugarh and central Assam's Nagaon, launched the services in Tripura, the second northeastern state.
With the extension of train services up to Sabroom (135 km south of Agartala), the seven northeastern states now would be able to access Bangladesh's Chittagong international sea port, which is just around 70 km from Tripura, for carrying goods and machinery avoiding the existing surface roads passing through the mountainous terrain.
The NFR's Chief Public Relations Officer, Subhanan Chanda said that the DEMU trains' inherent advantages with quick acceleration and retardation provisions make them ideal to ply as shuttles between stations located at short intervals.
"As the DEMU trains, already plying in metropolitan and busiest cities in the country, can ply in both directions, it does not require any cumbersome reversal at terminal stations. The coaches are also better adopted with more seating capacity," he added.
There will be eight coaches in each DEMU train to be plied twice a day in the Dharmanagar-Agartala-Sabroom section.
The NFR, one among the 17 railway zones in India, is responsible for extending the railway lines and maintaining train services in seven districts of West Bengal and five districts in north Bihar, besides the eight northeastern states, including Sikkim.
The NFR has laid new railway tracks at three places along the India-Bangladesh border -- Agartala, Sabroom and Belonia.
The Rs 972-crore Agartala (Tripura) and Akhaura (Bangladesh) project is now under construction and these railway lines would facilitate the carriage of passengers and goods from the northeastern states through the Bangladesh railway network.
Spending Rs 1,150 crore, the NFR has extended the 110-km railway lines up to two bordering sub-divisional towns -- Sabroom and Belonia -- both cities situated along the Bangladesh border, facilitating the link with the railway networks of the neighbouring country.
With southern Tripura's Sabroom located around 70 km from the Chittagong sea port in southeastern Bangladesh, India has already got Bangladesh's in-principle consent to use the international port to ferry goods to and from the northeastern states.
A senior official said that the NFR is trying hard to extend the railway lines to three more capital cities of the northeast -- Imphal (Manipur), Aizawl (Mizoram) and Kohima (Nagaland) by 2020.
Assam's main city of Guwahati, Tripura capital Agartala and Arunachal capital Itanagar are already linked to the railway network.
He said that due to land-related problems, the expansion of the rail network in Meghalaya and Sikkim has turned into a non-starter.
Festival of democracy enters second leg with 88 Lok Sabha seats across India set to vote
While 89 constituencies were slated to go to polls in the second phase, as per the initial announcement by the Election Commission, voting in Madhya Pradesh's Betul was advanced to the third phase on May 7 following the death of the BSP candidate in the fray.
Tripura BJP issues show-cause notice to party leader for slamming TMP chief Pradyot Debbarma
A day before the second phase of Lok Sabha elections, the ruling BJP in Tripura on Thursday served a show cause-notice to one of the party’s Vice-Presidents, Patal Kanya Jamatia, who accused Tipra Motha Party (TMP) chief Pradyot Bikram Manikya Debbarma of “spreading hatred” among tribals and non-tribals in the state.
PM Modi ups ante against Congress, says Rajiv Gandhi abolished inheritance law to 'save own interests'
Upping the ante against the Congress on the 'inheritance tax' issue, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday launched another scathing attack on the grand old party, saying it was former PM Rajiv Gandhi who abolished the inheritance law "to save their own interests" after the demise of his mother Indira Gandhi.
Multi-cornered contest in Tripura East LS seat going to polls on Friday
A multi-cornered contest will be witnessed in the Tripura East Lok Sabha seat, which goes to the polls in the second phase of the 7-phase parliamentary elections on Friday.
Credit card data of 17K ICICI Bank users exposed; bank blocks cards, assures compensation
After credit card data of at least 17,000 new ICICI Bank customers was exposed and reached "wrong users", the bank said on Thursday that it has blocked these cards and is issuing new ones to the customers.
TRIPURA: BSF jawan on election duty dies after rifle accidently goes off
In a tragic incident amid the preparation for the second phase of polling in Tripura, a Border Security Force (BSF) jawan, who was engaged in election duty died after his rifle went off accidentally.
13.96 lakh voters to cast vote in 1664 Polling stations tomorrow
Although nine candidates are in the fray in the Tripura East Lok Sabha constituency, the main battle will be mainly between BJP candidate Kirit Singh Debbarma and CPIM candidate Rajendra Reang.
CM leads campaign with vigor, Completes 30 rallies, 18 road shows covering over 6,000 km
Chief Minister Prof. Dr. Manik Saha vigorously campaigned for BJP candidates in the Lok Sabha elections & Bidhan Sabha by-election, participating in 30 public rallies, 18 road shows, and 7 padyatras.