- Abhijit Nath, NET Correspondent, Tripura
Agartala, August 02, 2022 : Tripura Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha on Tuesday said that he would raise the issues with the central government regarding the slow progress of the Indo-Bangla railway link project from Agartala to Akhaura and to operationalize ‘Maitri Setu’ connecting Sabroom of Tripura to Chittagong of Bangladesh.
Notably, both the projects would have given a major boost to the bilateral exchange but failed to functionalize yet. Although, ‘Maitri Setu’ at Tripura’s Sabroom under the southern district was inaugurated on March 09, 2021, but movement of passengers and vehicles were restricted till now. While the railway way link between India and Bangladesh from Agartala to Akhaura has also not been completed within the target set during inauguration.
Being asked about the Indo-Bangla railway link project, Chief Minister Dr Saha said “Regarding this, I had a discussion with the union minister of Railway during my last visit in New Delhi. I visited the site and officials said that the construction of the elevated corridor will be completed soon and now, we are looking forward to that. Hope it will not be delayed anymore.”
On the ‘Maitri Setu’, a bridge over Feni river in Sabroom, he said “I am aware about the inauguration of ‘Maitri Setu’ over a year back. As per my knowledge, some parts are still left to be completed on the Bangladesh side which is restricting the movement of vehicles and passengers. The officials of Bangladesh posted here held a courtesy meet recently, I told them to solve the problem and they agreed. However, the actual fact is that the issues need to be raised to higher authorities of both the countries. Hence, I will take up these issues with concerned authorities of the central government.”
Besides, the Chief Minister also said that he had raised the issue of double lanes instead of single railway tracks to solve the problems of signals and crossings in Tripura. Dr Saha further told reporters that he is likely to meet the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 06 next and apprise him about the progress status of the centrally sponsored schemes running in the state. He said “The PM Modi will review the progress of centrally sponsored schemes and for that 7 minutes time has been allotted to all Chief Ministers, I will try to highlight everything in this allotted time.”
Apart from these, the Chief Minister appealed to the people of Tripura to make the ‘Har Ghar Tiranga’ campaign successful and he said “The state government has set a target of 4.8 lakh households in Tripura which is 60 percent of the total households where the tricolor flag will be hoisted. In distributing these flags, Tripura Rural Livelihood Mission, Tripura Urban Livelihood Mission, Department of handloom & handicrafts are involved. However, 5.37 lakh national flags were ordered for the grand event to be observed between August 13 and 15.” He further added that “Tripura is ranked in the seventh position among the states for accomplishing tasks under the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav celebrations.”
