NFR proposes Jan Shatabdi express between Silchar and Agartala

The Northeast frontier railway has written to Railway board proposing a tri weekly Jan Shatabdi train between Silchar and Agartala on the request of Tripura government.

“The matter has been examined by this railway and it is found that running of the above service is operationally feasible. One released ICF rake …is available and can be utilized to run a new tri-weekly service between Agartala and Silchar” the northeast frontier railway wrote to Railway board on 3rd Dec.

At present, both the cities are connected directly by only 15663/15664 Agartala-Silchar Express (Daily) which runs with 18 coaches. This service is very popular as there is no other service between the two cities and hence Tripura govt deemed fit to request another train between the cities.

Justifying the feasibility of the train, NFR wrote “Silchar is the headquarters of Cachar district and one of the largest cities in Assam. Agartala is the capital city of Tripura and one of the largest cities in northeast India. Both the cities share social, cultural, educational and economic relations”. The letter was signed by Rashmi Gautam, CPTM/NFR.

The proposed timing of the Jan Shatabdi express is as follows-

Departure from Agartala at 6:00 hrs, reaching Silchar by 10:30 hrs. For return journey, it will depart from Silchar at 17:30 hrs reaching Agartala by 22:00 hrs. If introduced, the train will bring down the travel time between these two important cities of Northeast to only 4.5 hrs.

The train will have limited halts at Badarpur, New Karimganj, Dharmanagar and Ambassa.

As per a news agency UNI, the said train has been approved by railway board, finding it operationally feasible. The news agency, mentioning railway sources said that a 10 coaches rake will be utilizedfor the service, which will roll out very soon.