AGARTALA, April 26 - Construction work for the Indo-Bangla railway network is likely to start in August or September next with West Tripura district administration carrying out land acquisition on priority basis, according to official sources.
West Tripura district administration has already begun land acquisition process for the ambitious Agratala-Gangasagar (Bangladesh) rail project and is expected to get completed by next two-and-a-half months, said Land Acquisition Officer (LAO), West Tripura PK Deb here on Wednesday.
As per the alignment approved by Northeast Frontier Railway ( NFR), plots measuring 60 acres of 200 families would be acquired for the land extension project. �We are according top priority to complete land acquisition process at the earliest�, he said.
NFR has already released Rs 97 crore for land acquisition for the railway extension project connecting Agartala with Gangasagar (Bangladesh), said deputy chief engineer of NFR BN Bhaskar here.
�Once required land is provided to us, NFR will undertake construction of rail track (elevated corridor) to connect both sides of the border within a month�, he said.
Bhaskar said from Agartala station to Badharghat area would be elevated corridor, while track will be laid on the ground from Charipara to Nischintpur, a border area of Sadar subdivision.
According to experts, elevated corridor has been planned to save land keeping in mind of the densely populated area and this will obviously reduce the total project cost.
In Indian side, the track will be around 5 km while remaining 10 km railway track will be laid on Bangladesh side and IRCON will execute the 10 km track as per the plan.
The estimated cost of the project stands at Rs 968 crore and it is as part of Indo-Bangla railway network which is in turn a part of Trans-Asian network plan, according to experts.
In his last visit to the State, Minister of State for Railways Rajen Gohain had said there would be no dearth of fund to complete the Indo-Bangla railway project and it is a priority railway project.
