From Our Correspondent
Agartala: If adequate fund is available, the Broad Gauge rail network is expected to touch Agartala by March, 2016 with the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) working hard to complete the project on time.
A team of NFR headed by Harpal Singh, the Chief Engineer of Construction has visited some ongoing projects in Tripura and review the progress with local rail officials.
The NFR wants to extend BG facility to Agartala by March, 2016 provided fund is available, Singh told reporters after meeting with state government officials here on Monday.
As per the plan, the on going BG conversion work in the Lumding-Silchar secton is expected to be over by March, 2015.
Virtually lamenting over the shortage of fund, Singh said the NFR authority had sought Rs. 135 crore to speed up BG conversion work from Silchar to Agartala but the Centre has allocated only Rs. 5 crore though the work was declared as national project.
He said the railway extension work from Agartala to Sabroom will be executed in two phases. “In the first phase, the work will be speeded up from Agartala to Udaipur while later it would be extended upto Sabroom. We are expecting to connect Udaipur by March 2015 and next year people of Sabroom are expected to see rail head”, he said.
Singh, however, hinted at the target has been fixed keeping in mind of the availability of funds. “If the funds are available, the NFR will be able to meet the targets of different rail projects or else all the projects will get delayed”, he maintained.