Trains first
reached Tripura in 1964 when the railway was extended to the state's northern
business hub, Dharmanagar. Later it was extended further to Kumarghat. The
foundation stone of the 119 km (74-mile) Kumarghat-Agartala railway project was
laid in 1996 ~ it has taken years to connect capital Agartala by rail with
other parts of the country.
Tripura, in
Northeast India, is the third-smallest state in the country, it covers 10,491
km2 (4,051 sq mi) and is bordered by Bangladesh, Assam and Mizoram. The area of modern 'Tripura' was ruled for
several centuries by the Tripuri dynasty. It was the independent princely state
of the Tripuri Kingdom under the protectorate of the British Empire which was
known as Hill Tippera while the area annexed and ruled directly by British
India was known as Tippera District. The independent Tripuri Kingdom (or Hill
Tippera) joined the newly independent India in 1949. Tripura lies in a
geographically disadvantageous location in India, as only one major highway,
the National Highway 8, connects it with the rest of the country. Five mountain
ranges—Boromura, Atharamura, Longtharai, Shakhan and Jampui Hills—run north to
south, with intervening valleys; Agartala, the capital, is located on a plain
to the west.
Tripura is the most
literate state in India with a literacy of 94.65%. The inaugural flagging of Tripura Sundari
Express in Aug 2016 by Suresh Prabhu made Tripura entering the broad gauge
railway map of the country. The
foundation stone for the much awaited railway track to link Agartala to Akhoura
in Bangladesh was jointly laid at the programme by Prabhu and his Bangladeshi
counterpart Md Mujibul Haque. ’Tripura Sundari Express’ was a weekly express running on Sundays and reaching New Delhi in 47 hours
after traveling via Guwahati-New Jalpaiguri. Rs 968 crore was spent for
Agartala-Delhi rail link.
Addressing the
gathering at that time, Prabhu said a regular train service between Agartala
and Kolkata would be started next month. “Kolkata is the cultural capital of
the country and Tripura has a long historic connection with it,” he said. On
the Agartala-Akhoura railway link, Prabhu said it would be part of trans-Asian
rail connectivity. Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi, he said, is
very keen to make northeast region a tourist hub. “We want to develop railway
network in the entire northeast and want to make it a tourist hub. We want to bring
Bangladesh into the same tourist circuit,” Prabhu said.
Tripura, the Sanskrit
name is linked to Tripura Sundari, the presiding deity of the Tripura Sundari
Temple at Udaipur, one of the 51 Shakti Peetas and to the legendary tyrant king
Tripur, who reigned in the region. Tripur was the 39th descendant of Druhyu,
who belonged to the lineage of Yayati, a king of the Lunar Dynasty.
Though Agartala was
scheduled to get broad gauge facility much earlier and by Mar 2016, works for
conversion in BG from a small meter gauge track from Lumding to Silchar in Assam
was completed in March 2015 Freight services to Agartala had already resumed by
then. It was 31st July 2016 when Suresh Prabhu the then Railway Minister of
India inaugurated the Agartala-New Delhi ‘Tripura Sundari Express’ linking the
broad gauge with the rest of the country.
On 28th Octr 2017 Rajdhani Express was inaugurated
from Agartala to Anand Vihar Terminal, New Delhi.
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
14th Jan 2017
