The conversion work of doubling the railway track of Tripura from Halflong to Sabroom has been initiated by the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) and the survey of conversion will be completed by June 2024 next.

This important information over the expansion of railway network across Tripura and doubling of its existing single way line has been revealed by the General Manager (Operation) of NFR, Sunil Kumar Jha during a meeting with Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha on Tuesday at his official residence.

A delegation of NFR led by GM Sunil Kumar Jha met the Chief Minister and held detailed discussion over infrastructural development and other related services of the NFR in Tripura.

During the meeting, Jha said that survey work for doubling the railway track for a total of 243 kilometers of railway track from Chandranath area of Halflong station to Sabroom station via Agartala railway station will be completed by June, 2024 next .

He said that the construction works to connect Agartala station with Ganga Sagar and Dhaka stations of Bangladesh to set up connectivity upto Kolkata via Bangladesh has been expedited and entire construction works will be completed by October, 2023.

Jha also said that over request of the state government for increasing the local train number in the Agartala-Dharmanagar route by increasing the coaches of Demu train, the NFR is considering the demand and has also assured the Chief Minister.

He added that NFR has also considered the demand for railway services from Agartala to Mumbai, Agartala to Jammu and Agartala to Puri along with the starting of inter-city express between Agartala to Guwahati.

Jha said that by March, 2024 the entire track from Badarpur(Assam) to Sabroom will also be converted into electric lines and three more projects for expansion of railway network including new railway line from Pechathal to Dharmanagar, Dharmanagar to Belonia and Belonia to Feni are being waiting for approval of Railway Board.

The GM of NFR also informed the Chief Minister that to develop the Agartala station into an international standard railway station a detailed project report (DPR) of Rs. 235.45 crore has also been sent to the Railway Board for approval.

During the meeting, the secretary of CM, Dr P K Chakraborty, additional secretary of Transport department Subrata Chowdhury were also present.

Later, the NFR team also met the Chief Secretary JK Sinha and held detailed discussion over expansion of the railway network.