New Delhi: The connectivity between India and Bangladesh is set to get a huge boost when the rail link between Agartala in Tripura and Akhaura in Bangladesh opens this month. The link will be inaugurated during Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to India this month at the invitation from her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi for the G20 Summit.
A Northeast Frontier Railway source confirmed to ETV Bharat that the Agartala-Akhaura rail link will be opened in September. But Kamrul Ahsan, director general of Bangladesh Railway, is more forthright about the inauguration. "The prime ministers of the two countries will inaugurate the line on September 9, 10 and 11," Ahsan was quoted as saying by The Business Standard of Bangladesh.
Project director Abu Zafar Mia was quoted as saying that the final touches to the railway line are currently in progress. Initially, container trains will operate on the route, with plans to introduce passenger trains later. The 15.064-km-long rail link will connect Agartala with Akhaura with an immigration counter at Nischintapur along the India-Bangladesh border. While 5.05 km of the line stretches on the Indian side, 10.01 km lies on the Bangladesh side.
The opening of this rail link will ease goods transportation between the Chittagong port of Bangladesh and India’s northeastern region. Mia said that initially, container trains will operate on the route, with plans to introduce passenger trains later.
This new rail link was built by the North East Frontier Railways with funding from Indian grants. The link is a component of a bigger project expected to cost Rs 862.58 crore that will connect Bangladesh with India's Tripura. The Indian Railway Ministry has allocated Rs 153.84 crore for the Agartala-Akhaura rail link.
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“Bulk movement of goods is much cheaper by train,” Sabyasachi Dutta, executive director of the Shillong-based think tank Asian Confluence, told ETV Bharat. “Building on this rail and road connectivity together, a lot of value chain between India and Bangladesh will be created.”
It may be mentioned that along with the Agartala-Akhaura rail link, Modi and Hasina will also open via virtual mode the Maitri Setu (Friendship Bridge) over river Feni linking Sabroom, the southernmost tip of Tripura, with Chittagong port in Bangladesh. While the Agartala-Akhaura rail link will start freight transportation, the Maitri Setu will be opened for passenger traffic first with an integrated check-post at Sabroom. Once the infrastructure is fully set up, goods and cargo movement will also start across the Maitri Setu.
Dutta pointed out that rail connectivity in India’s northeastern region has increased over the last few years. “Now every state in the Northeast has got a railhead,” he said. “The entire Northeast will benefit once the Agartala-Akhaura rail link is opened.” The opening of the new rail link will reduce the distance between Agartala and Kolkata by 1,100 km. Travel time between Tripura’s capital and West Bengal’s capital will be reduced from 31 hours to 10 hours.
The Agartala-Akahura rail link is but another project to boost connectivity between the Northeast and neighbouring countries, including Myanmar and Bangladesh, in the face of Chinese influence in the region.
The opening of the new rail link will come close on the heels of New Delhi announcing that 16 more border haats will be opened to increase the volume of trade between India and Bangladesh. Already, eight such haats are operational in the northeastern states of Meghalaya and Tripura.
The Agartala-Akhaura rail link represents more than just a transportation route. It symbolises a bright future of collaboration and prosperity for India and Bangladesh.
