Work for laying a 15.054-km railway track to connect Akhaura and Agartala is unlikely to start during the tenure of the present government, according to sources in the Economic Relations Division (ERD) and Bangladesh Railway. India and Bangladesh signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on May 21 and it was decided that acquisition of land for the first phase of the work would be completed in six months.
According to a May 21 decision of the project steering committee (PSC), the timeline for the project implementation, the joint survey by the IRCON, Bangladesh Railway and the deputy commissioner of Brahmanbaria for the identification of land, and submission of a separate proposal for the Bangladesh portion of the project are scheduled to be submitted by May 25.
After receiving the survey report, Bangladesh Railway will prepare the development project proposal (DPP) and land acquisition will be completed within the next three months.
As a result, in the given timeline for the project implementation, there was no possibility of starting the implementation work during the tenure of the incumbent government, the ERD sources added.
The sources also said that the PSC would hold the next round of meeting in September and the final timeline would be clear only after that.
India will build a 15-km railway track, at a cost of Rs. 2.52 crore, linking Agartala with Akhaura, which is an important railway junction connecting the Chittagong sea port, the resource-rich Sylhet and capital Dhaka.
The rail route will also facilitate communication between the north-eastern region and Kolkata through Bangladesh.
Of the 15-km rail track, 5-km fall in the Indian territory, while the remaining 10 km will run through in Bangladesh.
-With The Independent input
