Broad Gauge upto Agartala to be completed by March

Agartala: The much-awaited Broad Gauge (BG) conversion work upto Agartala is scheduled to be completed by March, 2015, according to official sources here on Saturday.
The assurance came from General Manager of Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR-Construction) Harprit Singh at review meeting held at Civil Secretariat here last week.
PWD Minister Badal Chowdhury chaired the meeting while Chief Secretary SK Panda and Transport Secretary Kishore Ambuly were remained present.
In the meeting, Singh assured the state government that the BG conversion work upto Agartala would be completed by March, 2015 next as the ongoing work has been gaining ground in between Lumding and Badarpur section.
Likewise, the laying of rail track upto Sabroom via Udaipur is expected to get completed by March 2015 next if everything falls in place, he said.
According to him, the rail track upto Sabroom would be BG as decided by the Railway Board.
However, the tender for Indo-Bangla rail link is yet to be floated by the Ministry of Railways.
The preliminary work for the dream rail project has already been done and a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has also been singed between two sides.
According to sources, fund still remains a major constraint for the NFR to achieve the target.
The state government has already demanded to increase outlay for speed up the ongoing railway projects in the state.
Meanwhile, RK Goel, the Divisional Manager of NFR on Sunday visited Agartala Rail Station to check the existing railway service in the state.
After holding meeting with local Railway officials on the new railway schedule, Goel echoed the same decision as announced by NFR authority earlier.
“Agartala is likely to be brought under the ambit of BG facilities by March, 2015. We are working on the same target”, he told reporters.