Agartala to Gangasagar railway line report submitted

Agartala, Dec 7 : The Indo-Bangladesh joint team has submitted recommendations to both the Indian and Bangladesh governments after finalisation of the alignment for the proposed railway extension from Agartala to Gangasagar in Bangladesh during October last.

The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) authorities decided to proceed for the land acquisition only after getting a nod for clearance from the policy-level.

The Railway Ministry had framed a fresh proposal for connecting Agartala with the neighbouring country as requested by Bangladesh, and as a result, Akhaura junction (border of Agartala-Bangladesh) was not in the list of direct connections with Agartala.

The NFR officials here today said they had already initiated the work of constructing a three-km long tunnel in NC Hills in Assam, which was considered as a major bottleneck in Broad Gauge (BG) extension work.

''The gauge conversion work will be completed by 2013, as the Assam government assured to provide foollproof security to the people engaged in rail work,'' officials said, adding that a joint monitoring committee, headed by the Tripura chief secretary, was constituted to review the progress of the rail projects.