New Delhi: With a investment of about 4,033 crore rupees and a total length is about 90 kilometers of railway network two cross-border rail links between Banarhat and Samtse and Kokrajhar and Gelephu connecting West Bengal and Assam respectively was announced by Railway Minister Ashwani Vaishnav and Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri. This will be the first set of rail connectivity projects with Bhutan. It is envisaged as an economic hub connecting Bhutan with South Asia and Southeast Asia, informed Misri.
As for who will fund the project, Misri said, the segment of the respective railway links that falls within Indian territory will be funded by the Ministry of Railways. And the segments for both the links that will fall within Bhutanese territory will be borne by the Ministry of External Affairs as part of the Government of India's assistance of Rs 10,000 crores for Bhutan's 13th Five-Year Plan.
Addressing mediapersons Railway Minister Vaishnav said, 'this will provide a lot of economic benefits to the people, both in terms of tourism, industrial growth, people-to-people movement and goods movement.'
Informing on the statistics minister said, 'In Banarhat–Samtse, Bhutanese side is about 2.13 kilometers and Indian side is about 17.42 kilometers. In case of Gelephu, Bhutanese side is 2.39 kilometers, Indian side is 66.66 kilometers. So the time taken for Samtse will be about three years Gelephu will be four years.'
He said, 'Both Goods and Passengers will be using these two lines. This line will also have most advanced signaling systems that we are implementing everywhere in the country, and this will be designed for running Vande Bharat trains. So, modern trains will be run, fully electrified and the curves and all the technical parameters will be designed as per the Vande Bharat requirements.'
The region being environmentally fragile the rail infrastructure has had special consideration. Ashwini Vaishnav noted that issues like climate resilience, flow of water have been especially addressed. by having sufficient number of underpasses and also making sure that elephants can pass under the railway tracks.'
The technology is all Indian. Coaches will be made in India.
As for the security parameters of the trains, he informed that the security arrangement will be done in consultation with the operational requirements of both the countries. 'We will try to have as many people as possible from Bhutan side to be trained in railway operations so that they also become part of the entire network, the way we have done in case of Nepal also.'
The project is set to start very soon. The land schedules, permissions are all in the works. Land acquisition will start soon. The government of Assam is on board, Vaishnav said.
In the press briefing Misri informed that Bhutan being a mojor trade partner of India some of the potential exports from Bhutan to India from this area will involve dolomite, ferro-silicon, quartzite and stone chips. As for utility, it will be for both cargo and passenger movement.
Misri also emphasised, when it comes to infrastructure projects, India's guiding principle and fundamental approach has been that we do infrastructure projects only those ones that our partner countries are comfortable with. We are driven by the priorities of our partner countries, not by our supply necessities.
It is to be noted that India, Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh have an agreement. Under India's agreement with Nepal and Bangladesh their exports and imports use Indian territory for transit — to export to each other, and to export to third countries as well. Presently, they use India’s road network and some of its rail network. However, with these two projects, Bhutan will be connected to the Indian rail network. This means that any exports from Nepal and Bangladesh going to Bhutan will also be able to use this Indian rail connectivity, to send their exports to Bhutan and to bring Bhutan’s exports here.
