The Centre has been urged to reopen the Silchar-Mahisasan-Sylhet rail route for easy transit of goods between south Assam’s Barak valley and Kolkata.
A prominent social organisation of the area, Pratibadi Gana Mancha, today said in a statement that the reopening of the rail route, which was closed in the late 1970s, would facilitate an easier and faster link of this region with Kolkata via Bangladesh.
Bangladesh has agreed to road routes for transit traffic on the Silchar-Sutarkandi-Chittagong Port as well as the Silchar-Sutarkandi-Benapole-Kolkata routes to facilitate trade and commerce between the two countries, but there has been no progress on reopening the rail route so far, Mancha’s convenor Mr Shankar Dey said.
The demand assumes significance as the fate of the Silchar-Lumding broad gauge line hangs in uncertainty.
Mr Dey said the proposal to reopen the Silchar-Mahisasan-Sylhet rail route should be included in the coming Railway budget.