AGARTALA, April 22 (PTI): Union minister Raosaheb Patil Danve on Friday announced that a multimodal transport hub will be developed in South Tripura’s Sabroom, which shares an international border with Bangladesh.
The proposed project will be developed under the PM Gati Shakti scheme and will have rail, road, and water and air connectivity at Sabroom, which is only 70-km from Chittagong port in the neighbouring country, he said.
The scheme aims at boosting economic growth through infrastructure building.
Danve, the minister of state for Railways, made the announcement during his three-day visit to the northeastern state to review the progress of various projects of the national transporter.
The ministry of Railways has been working on setting up a multimodal transport hub at Sabroom and it will benefit Tripura immensely, he told reporters here.
He visited the Agartala-Sabroom railway project site and Nishantapur yard and held a meeting with officials.
The proposed multimodal transport hub will reduce the travelling time between West Bengal’s Kolkata and Agartala drastically.
“Currently, a truck from Kolkata takes around 38 hours to reach Agartala, while it will be a 16-hour journey via Chittagong port if the new plan is executed,” the minister said.
Once the transport hub is ready, it will be handed over to the Land Ports Authority of India for operation and maintenance, he mentioned.
Danve stated that the Agartala-Akhaura railway project is expected to be completed by the end of December as the station work at Nischintapur in West Tripura district has almost been completed.
Besides, work for the railway tracks has already been finished, he said.
Akhaura is an upazila (subdivision) of Brahmanbaria district in Bangladesh.
Responding to a question over the “slow” pace of work on the Bangladesh side for the project, the minister said, “It is not in our hands… We can discuss the issue with the neighbour only. We will complete the project within the stipulated time.”
The Northeast Frontier Railway is also working on a plan to have alternative tracks to connect Lumding from Agartala and there will be “a survey on whether separate tracks will be constructed or not”, he said.
During this visit, Danve also met chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb and discussed various railway projects in the state.
“The CM requested me to introduce a train to connect Agartala with Mumbai for the benefit of the people,” he added.
