October 28, 2017: Thousands of enthusiast people in a celebratory mood assembled at the majestic Agartala Railway station. They eagerly waited to witness the history that was being created at 2.30 pm today as the Rajdhani Express began its 2413 KM long journey to New Delhi from this city today. The distance will be covered in 41 hours. Agartala has became second capital in NorthEast after Guwahati having Rajdhani Express service.
The Minister of State for Railways Rajen Gohain flagged off the new Rajdhani Express service at Agartala station between Anand Bihar and Agartala, capital city of Tripura, this afternoon.
In his inaugural speech, Gohain said, the pace for development of the Northeast has received a big momentum during the last three years. He said, all the State capital cities of the region will get connected by Broad Gauge rail by 2019. Works are going on in each state of the region, except Sikkim, to connect the state capital with Broad Gauge railway.
Focusing on rail works in the region, Gohain said, Tripura is presently seated at the most forward line in the region pertaining to rail connectivity,. The rail extension works linking to Bangladesh and extension of rail up to Sabroom are going on in full swing.
Union Minister of State for Railways, Rajen Gohain was accompanied by a host of dignitaries that included among others Governor Tathagata Roy, ministers Badal Choudhury, Manik Dey, MPs Jitendra Choudhury Sankar Prasad Datta, MLA Dilip Sarkar. Railway top brass including General Manager Chahatey Ram attended the function.
“Railway Minister Piyush Goyal will visit Tripura sometime in between November 3-6. At that time I may also accompany him. If the state has anything to press for, it can place before him at that time”, Gohain said.
Describing today’s function is a sort of history, Governor Tathagata Roy hailed the role of the Central Government. All other speakers, including Badal Choudhury, Manik Dey, Shankar Prasad Dutta, Jitendra Chowdhury and Dilip Sarkar too praised railways for their efforts in providing a better train service to the State and urged the N. F. Railway authorities to continue with providing better services and facilities and appealed for timely completion of projects.
NFR stated, the New Delhi-Agartala Rajdhani will run once a week from the 6th of next month on regular basis. The train will depart Agartala on every Monday at 6.30 pm, and New Delhi on Wednesday at 7.55 pm.
Along the route, it will halt at 15 stations, including Dharmanagar in north Tripura. The other halt stations are New Karimganj, Badarpur, New Halflong, Hojai, Guwahati, Kamakhya, Rangiya, Barpeta Road, New Jalpaiguri, Katihar, Barauni, Patliputra, Mughalsarai and Kanpur.
The fares for 1st AC has been fixed at Rs 7060, 2nd AC at Rs 4330 and 3rd AC at Rs 3200.
