No word in Rail Budget on track conversion in Tripura: Manik Dey

AGARTALA: A Tripura minister today expressed concern that the Union Railway Budget did not include sanction of funds for conversion of railway tracks from narrow gauge to broad gauge in the state.

"We have sought clarification on plans of converting the meter gauge railway lines into broad gauge since there is no mention of the issue in the rail budget. We have asked the railway minister for his intervention," Transport minister Manik Dey told reporters here.

There was mention in the rail budget about broad gauge conversion in the Lumding-Silchar sector in Assam, but it was silent on the Agartala sector, he said.

"Earlier, the NE railway and the former rail minister repeatedly assured us of conversion from narrow gauge to broad gauge from Dharmanagar to Agartala along with Lumding-Silchar route," Dey said.

The two MPs from Tripura, Jitendra Chowdhury and Shankar Prasad Datta met Union Railway Minister Sadananda Gowda on July 10 and took up the matter with him, he said, adding, Gowda assured to look into the matter.

There was no word about extension of railway lines from Agartala to Sabroom in south Tripura district and he had written twice to Gowda since the rail budget was placed in Parliament, the minister said.