Agartala, Sept 20 (UNI) The Ministry of Railway is exploring the feasibility to run Shatabdi Express between Kolkata and Agartala following repeated persuasions by MPs of Tripura after successful trial of demo service connecting north-south towns on frequent interval.
Loksabha MP from West Tripura Pratima Bhowmik addressing a gathering in Northern town Kailashahar said Tripura desperately needs express connectivity with Kolkata besides improvement of air connectivity since Kolkata is the most preferred destination for trade, commerce and leisure for the people of the state.
Tripura is connected with Kolkata by trains, including luxury service like Humsafar express, but it takes 36 to 48 hours.The travel time should be brought down within 24 hours..At present people have been travelling by air at comparatively high cost and many a times tickets were not available.
“Soon after Narendra Modi led government came to power in 2014, within six months the entire narrow gauge track between Agartala and Badarpur of Assam was converted to broad gauge. Tripura got direct train service up to Delhi, Kolkata and Bengaluru. Rajdhani express like train started service from here,” Bhowmik pointed out.
She further stated that Modiji had made commitment to make northeast as HIRA (highway, internet way, roadways and airways) in terms of connectivity and in last five years there has been a remarkable improvement in the infrastructure development and communication network. But it is not sufficient for the region and the people want it to be at par with other parts of the country.
“The railway ministry has already undertaken the survey work for installation of second phase railway connectivity from Dharmanagar – Kailashahar – Kamalpur – Khowai and Agartala. We have been proposing to connect Sonamura with Agartala in railway line and hopefully it would be done in phase manner,” she added.
Bhowmik also pointed out that railway connectivity with Silchar and Guwahati will be improved soon.
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