AGARTALA, June 28 � Around 3.7 km of the total 15 km Indo-Bangla railway extension project would be �elevated corridor� popularly known as over-head rail link to reduce the project cost, official sources said here.
A high level team headed by NF Railway Chief Engineer Harpal Singh, who visited the alignment for the proposed rail track to remodel the Detailed Project Report, informed Tripura Transport Minister Manik Dey about the new plan, sources in Transport department said on Sunday.
After a long persuasion, the alignment for Agartala-Gangasagar railway extension project was finalised by the two sides. As per the alignment, five km track will be laid inside Indian territory while the remaining 10-km will be constructed in Bangladesh side.
Around 91 acres of land was supposed to be acquired by spending Rs 302 crore.
On June 18, NITI Aayog had a meeting with DoNER, Railways Ministry, External Affairs Ministry (MEA) and representatives from Tripura.
In the meeting, an elaborate discussion was held where it was decided to complete the project by 2017 and Railway Ministry will fund the Indo-Bangla railway project.
As per the decision, Railways Ministry has sent a high-level team headed by NFR Chief Engineer Harpal Singh to assess the ground situation before pushing the project.
After making an on the spot inspection, the team met Tripura Transport Minister and briefed him about the new plan of the Ministry. As per the new plan, a length of 3.7 km of the total 15-km Indo-Bangla railway extension project would be �elevated corridor� instead of laying track on the ground. This will reduce the cost of land acquisition for the ambitious project.
Although IRCON has already been assigned to execute the project but it was not known by when construction work to connect Agartala railway station with Gangasagar railway station in Bangladesh, will kick start.