MoS Pratima Bhowmik meets Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw

Union Minister of State for Social Empowerment and Justice Pratima Bhoumik met Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw in New Delhi on Friday and discussed a host of issues, including speeding up the railway route between Agartala and Akhaura.

A statement of Bhowmik’s office highlighted that Vaishnaw assured Bhoumik regarding the commissioning of the route connecting Agartala with Kolkata via Bangladesh within this year.

During the meeting, Bhoumik also talked about the addition of a halt at Pecharthal station in North Tripura, a vital station in the northern region of the state.

She also discussed constructing footbridges in the Jogendranagar area, facilitating transportation of goods, tea and passengers in areas like Mekhlipara tea garden in Khayerpur and other areas located in the Agartala’s outskirts.

Railway Minister Vaishnaw also promised Bhowmik to fulfill all the requests brought to his attention and said that he would to consider issuing vendor-specific licenses for hawkers on trains in Tripura.

The Agartala-Akhaura railway, which spans 15 kilometers and includes an international immigration station at Nischintapur near the Indo-Bangla border, will connect India’s Agartala with Bangladesh’s Akhaura.

After the completion of the project, the travel time between Kolkata and Agartala via Dhaka will be minimised to 10 hours from 31 hours.
Notably, the proposal for the Agartala-Akhaura railway project came in 2010, while a Memorandum of Understanding ( MoU) was signed between India and Bangladesh for the project.

However, the project was delayed due to land acquisition issues and the Covid-19 pandemic.