Lay The Sleepers
- Akhaura-Agartala: The short 15-km stretch instantly connects the two countries via Gangasagar
- Akhaura to Sabroom in Tripura: Will afford the Northeastern states easy
connectivity to the Chittagong international sea port - Chilahati in Bangladesh to Haldibari in WB: It will shorten the rail route distance between Bangladesh and Bhutan
- Kulaura in north-eastern Bangladesh to Mahishasan in Assam’s Lumding division
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Links Already Active
- Passenger traffic between the two capitals, Calcutta and Dhaka
- reight corridor between Mahishasan in Assam to Shahbazpur, in a partly dormant state as of now
- Freight corridor between Radhikapur to Birol
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Rail links between Bangladesh and India, abandoned after the 1965 Indo-Pak war when the country was East Pakistan, may soon see service again. Talks have been on between the two sides now for several years on restoring seven of the rail links, but this time around work may actually start on the stretch from Agartala in Tripura to Akhaura in southeast Bangladesh by October. The link only requires a 15-km stretch of track to be laid between the two cities, of which 5 km is in India. However, a lack of political will and a rail ministry with a largely absentee minister (Mamata Banerjee) in the last three years had meant project delays.
The Bangladesh government has been pushing for work to start for almost a decade now—it would create more opportunities for trade, connectivity. The Indian side has finally shown some commitment with a team of Indian Railway Board officials visiting the proposed construction site earlier this month. “The project will start by October this year and will be completed in three years. The cost, over Rs 250 crore, will be borne by the Indian government,” says a railway ministry official. However, a detailed project report with the route and technical alignment is yet to be finalised and submitted to both governments for approval. (A survey for this line was done in 1999 and has been proposed for completion several times since.)
The connection along this sector will provide an important link between the Northeast states and Chittagong international seaport. This was part of an agreement signed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina in January last year.
Three of the seven rail links had been restored in the intervening years after the war but till date connectivity between the two countries by rail or by road has been poor, despite the latent advantages. The connection between Chilahati in Bangladesh and Haldibari in West Bengal, for instance, can also service Nepal and Bhutan. The other link between Bangladesh’s northeastern city of Kulaura to Mahishasan in Assam too holds a lot of promise. Also, early operationalisation of the link between Rohanpur (in Bangladesh) and Singhabad (WB) and dual gauge conversion of the section from Parbatipur (Bangladesh) to Birol (Murshidabad, WB) have also been proposed. The line from Sabroom in southern Tripura to Akhaura is also likely to see work begin soon. Officials say, if approved, this stretch could be completed by 2014. Bangladesh already operates regular train services on its side up to Akhaura. The Hasina government will finance these other links along with India once the approvals are through.
At present, there’s only one passenger link between India and Bangladesh, which is the weekly Calcutta-Dhaka Maitree Express. A link also exists between Mahishasan and Shahbazpur and a third one between Radhikapur and Birol, but these are only used occasionally and that too for freight movements.
The hope is that the new rail links will not only improve ties but could also help commerce. An area of concern, of course, is security. It’s a known fact that militant groups in the Northeast have bases in Bangladesh and that they are supported by vested elements in that country. More rail links could lead to an increase in cross-border subversive activities.
