Silchar and Guwahati to suffer a massive blow if this railway Link is completed. Click to know why?

A long pending demand of the people of Tripura, The Agartala-Akhaura rail link, seems to be on its path of completion. The 15.6 km railway line will connect Nischintapur village (near Agartala) in Tripura(India) to Gangasagar village (near Akhaura) in Brahmanbaria district of Bangladesh. This railway connectivity will not help in boosting the economy of the northeastern region of India but will also reduce the time travel from Agartala to Kolkata by 20-22 hours. At present, it takes around 36 hrours to travel from Agartala to Kolkata passing through Badarpur , Guwahati and Siliguri. Also, it will connect Agartala with Chittagong, the sea port city of Bangladesh which, in result, will not only help in cheap transportation of goods but also reduce traffic in the critical Chicken’s Neck(Siliguri Corridor).

The Nichintapur railway station has a transshipment yard, the first of its kind in the northeast region .The station has dual gauge as the eastern and south eastern part of Bangladesh still has metre gauge. Works on the Indian side has almost been completed , whereas works on the Bangladesh side remains still in disarray. But , informations from local side is that the railway line will become operational by end of December 2023.

Now the question is how will it impact Silchar, the 2nd largest city in the state of Assam? A good amount of revenue in Silchar comes from people of Tripura through medical tourism. Hundreds of people, specially middle and lower class, often flock to Silchar for treatment. A lot of hospitals and hotels in Meherpur area of Silchar are just operating because of this huge amount of patients coming from the neighbouring state.

So ,if the railway line becomes operational and in due time, passenger trains start, it is evident that these patients will choose to go to Kolkata, which has much times better medical facilities compared to Silchar and Guwahati. This, in process, will hamper the economy of Silchar a lot , almost in all fronts. Infact, people from Karimganj and Hailakandi districts will also prefer to go to Kolkata through that route as it will incur less time unless emergency.

Moreover, there will be a higher chance that goods in Agartala will become more cheaper and we may have to depend upon Agartala in near future , as Silcharians have a tendency to look down upon Agartala and its surroundings often.

Hence, it’s very much necessary for Silchar people to think for future as we are lacking in other fronts due to negligence of govt. and many other factors. If we don’t start thinking for our lovable city, then we may see this place in doom very soon.

Nilanjan Debnath