Fund crunch mires India-Bangladesh rail project
Five years after the plan for an India-Bangladesh railway network was approved, uncertainty persists over the project as no funds have been allocated yet, authorities said, reports Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) from Agartala.
It is not certain when the work for the project would start. No funds have been allocated so far for the Agartala (India)-Akhaura (Bangladesh) railway project, Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) general manager RK Gupta told reporters in Agartala on Sunday evening.
Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar said: No funds were also allocated for land acquisition for the railway project. We would start work immediately after the sanction of funds.
The Rs 575-crore project was finalised in January 2010 when Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina met then Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during her visit to New Delhi.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sheikh Hasina discussed the project again during Modis visit to Dhaka on June 6-7 this year.
India announced it would bear the entire cost of the 15-km long railway project. Of the 15 km, five km fall in the Indian territory and the rest 10 km in Bangladesh.
NITI (National Institution for Transforming India) Aayog had decided in a meeting in Delhi on June 18 to put in place the vital railway project between India and Bangladesh by December 2017, Tripura transport secretary Samarjit Bhowmik told IANS yesterday.
Bhowmik, who attended the NITI Aayog meeting, said: The alignment and other technicalities of laying the track to link Agartala railway station with Bangladeshs Akhaura railway station have been changed recently. A final report on the new alignment was also submitted for sanction of funds.
NITI Aayogs advisor Animesh Singh presided over the meeting in New Delhi, where officials of ministries of railways, development of north-eastern region (DoNER), external affairs and the Tripura government participated.
Bhowmik said that Indias external affairs ministry earlier announced it would provide funds to lay the tracks in the Bangladesh territory.
Tripura Transport Minister Manik Dey also held a meeting with Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu in New Delhi on September 23 and urged him to expedite the issues related to the project.
The railway minister told me that he would personally talk to the Railway Board and external affairs ministry about the funding of the project, Dey told IANS yesterday.
The project cost was earlier estimated at Rs 271 crore. In addition, Rs 302 crore was needed to acquire around 97.60 acres of land in Indias Tripura for laying the tracks.
