Title - India-Bangladesh to sign rail link MoU between Agartala and Akhaura

The Indian Govt would soon sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Bangladesh to set up a 15-km railway link between Tripura capital Agartala and Bangladesh’s southeastern city of Akhaurah. At a cost of Rs 271 crore, The Indian Railway Construction Company (IRCON) would lay the  railway track, of which five km falls in the Indian territory and the remaining in Bangladesh. The railway project was decided by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Bangladesh Premier Sheikh Hasina during her maiden visit to India in January 2010. The establishment of the new railway link would helped connect northeast India with Chittagong international sea port, resource-rich Sylhet and Dhaka. Agartala, for instance, is 1,650 km from Kolkata and 2,637 km from New Delhi via Guwahati and West Bengal, whereas the distance between the Tripura capital and Kolkata through Bangladesh is just about 350 km.