Tripura mulls Agartala-Kolkata train via Dhaka

From a correspondent

Agartala, Nov 5: The Tripura government has requested the Centre to take initiative for a direct Agartala-Kolkata via Dhaka rail service immediately after completion of the laying of the railway line from Agartala to Akhaura in Bangladesh.

At present, there is a regular broad gauge (BG) rail service between Kolkata and Dhaka.  After the ongoing project gets completed, the Agartala-Akhaura also will be connected to BG line within two years.

The State government, in a letter, has asked the Centre to take initiative with its Bangladesh counterpart so as to speed up the gauge conversion work between Akhaura and Dhaka. 

The Railway Minister of Bangladesh Mujibul Haque Mujib has recently visited Agartala in connection with a private programme where he said the government of the neighboring country is interested to revive connectivity with India. He also stated that the Bangladesh government has also evinced interest in converting all the existing meter gauge lines to broad gauge ones.