Rail service to Tripura's Sabroom will start soon: Rly

Railway service to Sabroom, a town near the India-Bangladesh border in Tripura, would start soon as "no technical problem" was identified in an inspection by railway safety officials, a senior railway official said.

A team of railway officials led by R K Sharma, Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) of the Northeast Frontier Railway had, on Monday, inspected the newly laid 39-km track from Belonia to Sabroom, traversing four railway stations including Belonia, Julaibari, Manu and Sabroom.

The Rs 3,407 crore project for laying 114-km Agartala-Sabroom railway track started in 2007-08 and the entire work was divided in four parts, among which three portions had been completed. The Belonia-Sabroom stretch was the last one.

"A few minor works would be completed within a week and rail service to Sabroom would start soon. No technical problem was identified during the inspection", Sharma told reporters after the inspection.

Considering the convenience and safety of the passengers, Sharma said, the team had gone through every aspect starting from bridges, tracks, tunnels and stations.

Sabroom is just 75 km from Chittagong International Sea Port in Bangladesh.

Work on the 43-km Agartala-Udaipur railway line, the first part of the project, was completed in 2017. Laying of 9 -km track between Udaipur and Garjee, the second part of the project, was completed in 2018.

Work on the railway line between Garjee to Belonia (22 km) was completed in February this year.

Thanking the state government for extending "all-out" cooperation, Sharma said, the entire project was completed before the December 2019 deadline.

Tripura entered the country's broad gauge railway map in July, 2016.