India announces two Rs 4,000 crore cross-border rail links with Bhutan

India on Monday announced its joint plan with Bhutan to implement two cross-border rail links of total 89-km length with Bhutanese cities of Samtse and Gelephu at a cost of more than Rs 4,000 crore.

The details of the initiative were made public by Railway MinisterAshwini Vaishnaw and Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri at a media briefing.

The two governments have agreed to establish two cross-border rail links to connect Banarhat (West Bengal) to Samtse and Kokrajhar (Assam) with Gelephu, Misri said.

"India and Bhutan share a relationship of exceptional trust, mutual respect and understanding," he said.

The agreement for setting up of the rail links was signed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Bhutan last year.

Project Details and Investment

Vaishnaw said the projects will take off from the network of Indian Railways. The investment envisaged at this point is about Rs 4,033 crore, he said.

“India is the largest trading partner of Bhutan and most of the EXIM trade of Bhutan is done through Indian ports. Therefore it becomes very important to have good, seamless rail connectivity for the Bhutanese economy to grow and for the people to have better ways of access to the global network. That’s why this entire project has been taken up,” he added.

While Samtse has big industrial potential, Gelephu is a new city which is getting developed.

Providing details of the first 69-km-long line between Kokrajhar and Gelephu, Vaishnaw said that there will be six stations between the two cities and the construction of the complete line will involve two important bridges, two viaducts, 29 major bridges, 65 minor bridges, two goodsheds, one road-over-bridge (ROB) and 39 road-under-bridges (RUBs).

It will be completed in four years with an investment of Rs 3,456 crore and 2.39 km out of 69 km will be on Bhutanese side.

Vaishnaw informed the media that the second line between Banarhat to Samtse will be 20 km long with two stations in between. It will have a completion period of three years at Rs 577 crore cost.

He also said that out of 20 km, 2.13 km will be in Bhutanese side, and there will be one major bridge, 24 minor bridges, one ROB and 37 RUBs on the route.

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Economic and Connectivity Benefits

“A lot of homework has already gone to reach this level. Very soon we will start the construction work. This will provide a lot of economic benefits to the people, both in terms of tourism, industrial growth, people to people movement, goods movement, practically every benefit that railway brings will happen with this,” Vaishnaw said.

According to the minister, both passenger and freight trains will operate on both the lines once they are completed.

He also said that the entire investment of Rs 4,033 crore has been made by the Indian government.

PTI