GARJEE

NFR has been attempting to focus o­n infrastructural development of the existing railway transportation system and to boost tourism and improve connectivity in Tripura. Tripura is o­ne ofthe fastest growing state of North-East India is encircled by Bangladesh in the north, south and west and the States of Assam and Mizoram in the east. Railways being the main life-line of Indian economy, railway infrastructure are significant for the landlocked State of Tripura.

Tripura has seen major development works in Railway sector from 2014-22. The entire Railway network in Tripura has been converted to a broad gauge network in 2014-22 thereby eliminating all metre gauge railway lines in Tripura. To enhance connectivity, various sections like Agartala - Udaipur, Udaipur - Garjee, Garjee - Santirbazar, Belonia - Sabroom got connected by broad gauge line in Tripura. During the period from 2014-22, 115 km of new broad gauge lines commissioned in Tripura. Tripura's capital Agartala has reserved a place o­n India's broad gauge map with the much awaited starting off of Agartala - Anand Vihar Tripura Sundari Express o­n 31^stJuly 2016. First Rajdhani Express in Indian Railways with Tejas type AC sleeper coaches with latest amenities were introduced from Agartala o­n 15^th February 2021. It has already completed it’s o­ne year of successful running. Trains to Secunderabad and Bangalore from Agartala also introduced. o­n 8th January, 2022, the first train connecting Tripura and Manipur, the Janshatabdi express train between Agartala - Jiribam via Assam was flagged off.

Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) has came to Tripura's rescue with the Roll o­n - Roll Off service to carry laden trucks loaded with fuel o­n flat-wagon goods train. When severe landslides had cut off road connectivity to Tripura in the month of July - August, 2016, shortage of fuel supply by road caused severe crisis in the state. Railways stepped in to run the first ever such train left from Bhanga (Assam) to Churaibari in Tripura. The road connecting Tripura with Assam has been in a very bad shape, disrupting the flow of commodities to Tripura and leading to a severe crisis.This helped Tripura to overcome the problem of fuel shortage.

The New Railway line project (15 km) cost of Rs.968 crore between Agartala in Tripura and Akhaura in Bangladesh will be completed very soon. Surveys are going o­n for new BG lines of 2.9 km Belonia – Chittagong to connect with Bangladesh, 45 km Pencharthal to Dharmanagar via Kailashahar and 170 km Dharmanagar to Pencharthal, Belonia via Kamalpur - Khowai to Agartala. o­nce all these projects will be finished, the economy of the state will benefit immensely. The tourism sector will also get a big boost.

During the period 2014-22, NFR has provided several new amenities in stations and trains from Tripura. 05 Foot Over Bridges, 128 Bio -Toilets, 20 free Wi-Fi were provided at different stations over Tripura during 2014-22. Lifts and escalators are also being constructed to provide better amenities to passengers.High speed LHB coaches with modern amenities were introduced in 02 trains and 120 CCTV monitoring systems were provided at 12 stations during 2014-22 for enhanced security of Railway property and passengers. Mechanized coach cleaning, heavy duty scrubber machines, train cleaning by o­n Board House Keeping Staff (OBHS) are also part of the Swachhta initiative. As a part of NFR’s Go-Green mission all stations in Tripura have been provided with 100% LED lights during 2014-22. Different important infrastructural & long pending works were completed during lockdown and 35 Shramik Specials trains ran over Agartala which carried about 17 thousands of migrant workers to their native state, Tripura.

In line with the effort to provide more berths to railway passenger of N.E. Region, N.F. Railway has augmented the capacity of some passenger carrying trains o­n permanent basis by adding various types of coaches. These passenger trains are presently running with full capacity. Additional coaches will also enable more and more local people to travel in passenger trains thereby providing a low cost option of travelling in short distance destinations.

Details of all the additional coaches which have been added permanently during this month are given below:

One AC 3 tier coach has been added in the 55615 / 55616 Guwahati – Silchar – Guwahati Fast passenger train w.e.f. 6^th May, 2019. So 64 additional AC berths have been created.

3(three) General second Class coaches have been added in the 55803 / 55804 passenger, 55809 / 55810 passenger and 55817 / 55818 passenger trains running between New Bongaigaon and Guwahati w.e.f. 25^th May 2019. So 270 numbers of additional seats are now available in these passenger trains.

4 (four) General second Class coaches have been added in the 55893 / 55894 passenger and 55895 / 55896 passenger trains running between Rangapara and Rangiya w.e.f. 25^thMay 2019. 360 new seats are now additionally available in this trains.

4 (four) General second Class coaches and o­ne Luggage van have been added in the 55681 / 55682 passenger and 55683 / 55684 passenger trains running between Agartala and Garjee w.e.f. 25^th May 2019. 400 new seats are now additionally available for passenger of these trains.

1 (one) General second Class coaches has  been added in the 55679 / 55680 passenger train running between Agartala and Dharmanagar w.e.f. 25^th May 2019. 90 seats are now additionally available for passenger of this train.

1 (one) AC 3 tier coach has been added in the 15715 / 15716 Kishanganj – Ajmer Garib Nawaj Express train from Kishanganj w.e.f. 14^th May, 2019. So 64 additional AC berths are now available for passenger of this train.

1 (one) AC 3 tier coach has been added in the 15721 / 15722 New Jalpaiguri – Digha Express train from New Jalpaiguri w.e.f. 17^th May, 2019. 64 additional AC berths are now available for passenger of this train.