Tripura's wait to see direct trains to mainland may be over by March 2016

Indian Railways is currently converting the state's metre gauge rail track to broad gauge

The long wait of northeastern state of Tripura to have direct broad-gauge rail connectivity with rest of India might end by March next year. The railways are presently undertaking a project, what they call as ‘Mega Block’, to convert the state’s metre gauge rail track to broad gauge and it is expected to be completed by early next year.  

Agartala found place in the railway map of India in the year 2008 when a metre gauge line was extended from Kumarghat, also in Tripura, to Agartala. This gave the city 407 km direct metre-gauge rail connectivity with Lumding in central Assam. A daily express train ran between Lumding and Agartala. Lumding is an important railway junction of Assam and falls under Guwahati-Dibrugarh broad-gauge rail section.

Since October last year, metre-gauge train services between Lumding and Karimganj stations (distance 203 km) were stopped for undertaking ‘Mega Block’ of Lumding-Badarpur-Silchar section. The Lumding-Agartala express train too stopped its operations and a passenger train plied between Karimganj and Agartala till its services too were withdrawn in September this year for broad conversion of Badarpur-Karimganj-Agartala section. Though goods train services on Lumding-Silchar section had started in March this year, passenger train services are yet to resume on the newly converted track.

Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) sources said the pace of conversion work on Badarpur-Agartala section would be faster than the Lumding-Badarpur-Silchar section as the metre-gauge tracks between Kumarghat and Agartala (distance 107 km) were laid keeping in mind the need of future conversion project. It has kept March 31 as the deadline for completion of the project.

Inordinate delays in completion of gauge conversion work on Lumding-Badarpur section, which falls in Assam, had delayed the realisation of having direct broad-gauge rail connectivity for Tripura for long.

“The Rs 3,500-crore Lumding-Badarpur-Silchar gauge conversion project was completed despite difficult hilly terrain, geologically unstable hills and difficult law and order challenges and has been appreciated as an engineering marvel in all respects. A number of railwaymen sacrificed their lives in the completion of this project,” said railway minister Suresh Prabhu while flagging off the first goods train on Lumding-Silchar line.

The 210-km long Lumding-Silchar Line is lifeline for Barak Valley (south Assam) and the states of Tripura, Manipur and Mizoram. These states are dependent on this line for supply of foodgrains, fertilisers, petroleum products etc. After gauge conversion of Guwahati-Lumding line in 1994, the transhipment point got shifted from Guwahati to Lumding.  The Lumding-Silchar gauge conversion project under NFR was sanctioned in 1996-97 and was declared as a ‘National Project’ in 2004. The project was hit by insurgency during the years 2006 to 2009 and works could only gain pace after 2009.

“The distinct advantage of having a broad gauge rail destination at Agartala would be that it will not only serve as a railway junction for further expansion of network in the region but would, in the later stages, also help in supplementing the rail connection with neighbouring countries, particularly Bangladesh. In addition to improving the transport infrastructure in the region, this would also be an adjuvant to India’s “Act East” policy,” said Jitendra, Union minister for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER).

The Indian railways is also in the process of laying a 15 km long rail track to connect Agartala with Akhaura in Bangladesh. This is with the objective to provide an alternative rail route for Northeast India to Kolkata via Bangladesh.