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Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday jointly inaugurated three projects via virtual mode, including a key rail link between Tripura's Agartala and Kolkata via Dhaka.
So what are these projects and how will it benefit the two nations? We explain.
What we know about the rail project
The railway link is 12.24 km including a 5.46 km dual gauge line on the Indian side and 6.7 km in Bangladesh. It connects Bangladesh’s Akhaura to Agartala through an international immigration station at Nischintapur on the outskirts of Agartala, which is India’s last railway station along the Indo-Bangla border.
Sanctioned during the year 2012-13, the foundation stone for the Agartala-Akhaura rail link was laid in July 2016.
But what about a link between Kolkata and Dhaka?
Reportedly, as of now, Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal have four functional rail links that are currently used only for goods or freight trains.
Once operational, the journey to and from Agartala to Kolkata will take only 10 hours, which is 31 hours now via Siliguri and Guwahati (Chicken’s Neck) and the distance will be reduced to 550 kilometres from 1600 kilometres.
Khulna - Mongla Port rail line
The top leaders also inaugurated the Khulna-Mongla Port rail line project with a total
project cost of $388.92 million.
The project entails construction of approximately 65 km of broad gauge rail route between the second biggest port of Bangladesh after Chittagong, the Mongla Port and the existing rail network in Khulna.
The Thermal Power Plant
The third project was the Maitree super thermal power plant, a 1,320 MegaWatts power plant in Rampal, Khulna Division of Bangladesh, which is expected to help Bangladesh meet its growing power needs.
The power plant project has been implemented by the Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company Pvt Ltd. This is a joint venture between the Bangladesh Power Development Board and India’s NTPC.
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