Labourers work at a railway construction site near Agartala on Sunday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Agartala, June 8: A carriage propelled by a lone engine will pull into Agartala station in about 20 days’ time, 44 years after rail tracks first snaked into the state.

Ninety five per cent of the track laying work on the 68km route between Ambassa in Dhalai district and Agartala is complete and the railways is giving finishing touches to the tracks on a war footing.

A group of senior railway officials will arrive in Tripura to oversee the final stage of the project and survey Tripura’s readiness to receive its first locomotive engine.

The visit of the senior officials will be followed by an inspection by the commissioner for railway safety, Baldeb Singh, who will examine the quality of the work and then certify the commencement of regular railway service.

Railway project chief F.S. Mina today said: “Tracks have been already been laid on 60 of the 68km line between Ambassa and Agartala. Work is on in the remaining 8km, including a part inside the 1,856-metre tunnel in the Atharomura range.”

He said barring last-minute hiccups, work would be completed on time and the formal trial run with a single engine and single carriage would be flagged off on June 30.

“At present our officers and technical staff have been regularly inspecting the tracks on trolleys to check if there is any snag and I can assure you that good work has been done and everything will be okay on the trial run day,” Mina said.

He said there would be seven stations along the railway route from Ambassa to Agartala and all of them were ready.

“On the 89-km track between Manu in Dhalai district and Agartala, the main station, there will be 140 bridges and three major tunnels in Longtarai, Atharomura and Barmura ranges,” Mina said.

He thanked the state government for its co-operation and claimed that the work has been completed with Rs 800 crore, though the initial expense had been worked out at Rs 879 crore.

“This track can be easily converted into metre gauge once the gauge conversion work between Lumding and Badarpur is complete.”

For chief minister Manik Sarkar, the rail connectivity to Agartala is a personal achievement. Since 1985, Sarkar has been rooting for extension of the railway line upto Agartala.

Tripura had got its first railway link of only 13km between Kalkalighat in Karimganj district of Assam and Dharmanagar subdivision of North Tripura.

In 1990, the track reached Kumarghat. It took another 18 years for it to reach Agartala.

“We are happy that at last our dream is being fulfilled, it is the Left Front which has consistently fought for railway in Tripura, one dismissed by Centre as unavailable,” Gautam Das, CPM spokesman said.