Track clear for revival of old link

SILCHAR: Union minister for railways Mukul Roy said revival of the old rail link between Mahisashan station near the India-Bangladesh border in Karimganj district of Assam and Kolkata, via Bangladesh, is under active consideration in both New Delhi and Dhaka.
In reply to a letter written by Lok Sabha member (Karimganj) Lalit Mohan Suklabaidya, the railway minister said the issue was discussed at the bipartite meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka in September last year.Both the countries agreed to reopen the rail route, he said.
"Following this, India's external affairs ministry sought a project report from the concerned ministry in Bangladesh. The report is awaited," said Roy in his letter to the Karimganj MP.
The MP, who belongs to Congress, in his letter to the railway minister had said that a rail link from Mahisashan station to Kolkata through Bangladesh was necessary for the sake of easy connectivity of south Assam, Manipur, Tripura and Mizoram with the rest of the country.
The current rail link in the area through Guwahati and North Bengal is not only time-consuming and costly, but also hazardous. The region's railway connectivity with Kolkata through Bangladesh, which existed before Partition, will prove much easier and economical, and will also improve the development prospects of this part of northeast, he added. Moreover, if this route is reopened, it will take only eight to 10 hours to reach Kolkata from Assam's Karimganj.
Sources said the rail route was open for traffic till the 70s. Mahisashan station under Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) is the Indian railhead near Bangladesh border. The railway track reaches up to Sahbazpur station in Sylhet division on the other side of the international border. The track is barred simply with an iron bar. If the two sides agree, simply removal of the bar will help resumption of movement of trains between Karimganj and Kolkata through Dhaka, the sources added.