Agartala, July 31: The Tripura Sundari Express today chugged out of Agartala railway station, headed for New Delhi, 52 years after the first railway line was laid in the state.
Union railway minister Suresh Prabhu flagged off the train at 2.35 this afternoon with an 18,000-strong crowd in attendance.
Binod Behari Das, 72, a resident of Sonamura, had come to a relative's house here to witness the flagging off of the first broad-gauge train. "I travelled 60km to witness this. I never thought I would see this in my lifetime. I am overjoyed."
Laxmipati Debbarma, 55, came on a bus from Jampui Jala, 25km southeast of Agartala. "I had seen the first metre-gauge train roll into Agartala in October 2008. I am here again today. Tripura is moving ahead fast," said an elated Debbarma.
In 1964, Dharmangar in North Tripura got the first metre-gauge railway line and it was extended till Kumarghat in 2004.
The train will pass through 17 stations to reach Anand Vihar railway station in Delhi, traversing nearly 2,400km in 47 hours. The stations are - Ambassa and Dharmanagar in Tripura, Karimganj, Badarpur, New Haflong, Lumding, Hojai, Jagiroad, Guwahati and New Bongaigaon in Assam, New Jalpaiguri in Bengal, Katihar, Barauni and Patna in Bihar and Mughalsarai, Allahabad and Kanpur Central in UP.
According to the Northeast Frontier Railway, the 14020 Tripura Sundari Express will leave Anand Vihar every Monday at 11.55pm, while the 14019 Tripura Sundari Express will leave Agartala every Thursday at 2pm. Regular service will commence from August 8.
The cost of a sleeper class ticket is Rs 985, while the tickets for AC three-tier and AC two-tier will cost Rs 2,480 and Rs 3,565 respectively.
Prabhu promised an investment of Rs 7,000 crore to improve railway infrastructure in the Northeast. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ambition is to connect all the northeastern state capitals by rail link by 2020," he said.
"We have an agreement with the Indian Tourism Development Corporation to connect all tourist hubs in the region by rail link. This will entail massive development of infrastructure and we are working on it," he added.
He said he was committed to improve railway connectivity with Bangladesh. "In order to facilitate higher volume of trade between India and Bangladesh, we will try to connect Belonia and Pheni in South Tripura," the minister said. He also promised to introduce a direct train between Agartala and Calcutta from next month.
Minister of state for railways Rajen Gohain said gauge conversion was being done on a priority basis. He said Duronto trains would be introduced within a year to connect Agartala and other northeastern state capitals. "The Tripura government and state BJP president Biplab Deb have brought to our notice the petroleum crisis. We will approach the Bangladesh government through the external affairs ministry to ensure supply of petroleum products through that country," he said.
Bangladesh minister for railways Mujibul Haq, who arrived here yesterday to attend the foundation-stone laying ceremony of the Agartala-Akhaura rail link, praised the Indian Railways for their work. He attributed the current improvement in India-Bangladesh relations to the initiative taken by Modi. "It is because of Prime Ministers Narendra Modi, Sheikh Hasina and Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar that there has been a major improvement in bilateral relations."
