Rail link opens but Tripura CM unhappy

Agartala might have found a place on the railway map of India with the first Assam-bound passenger train being flagged off...

Agartala might have found a place on the railway map of India with the first Assam-bound passenger train being flagged off on Sunday, but Chief Minister Manik Sarkar is in no mood to celebrate.

“What is there to rejoice? We have just got only a metre gauge link when other states already have superfast trains running on broad gauge tracks,” Sarkar told The Indian Express. “I would rather describe it as a result of the ceaseless struggle by the people of Tripura. It was indeed difficult to get a railway connection from the unwilling hands of the Centre,” Sarkar added.

The launch was an uncharacteristically low-key affair with no VIP to flag off the train. “I was told that the Railway Minister would come later to see for himself the rail link to Agartala,” the Chief Minister said. The inauguration of the rail link, which has been ready since June, had to wait more than three months for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad who were supposed to inaugurate it in August or September.

However, it finally fell to Northeastern Frontier Railway Shunting Master Sasanka Ranjan Dey to flag off the passenger train from Agartala to Silchar in Assam. Initially, Agartala will have two passenger trains, with the first one running between Agartala and Lumding in central Assam and the second between Agartala and Silchar.

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