Agartala-Delhi Rajdhani Express Makes Debut Today, To Run Once A Week

New Delhi: Starting next month, travellers in the culturally vibrant Northeastern state of Tripura will be able to board their own Rajdhani Express to reach the national capital. The Agartala-Delhi Rajdhani Express will be the Northeast region's third Rajdhani. The express train will run between state capital Agartala and Delhi's Anand Vihar and is expected to cover 2,413 km in about 40 hours.

The train was flagged off today from Agartala railway station by Minister of State for Railways Rajen Gohain, but will formally begin operations from November 6. It will run once a week on Mondays from Agartala and Wednesdays from Anand Vihar. The 14-coach train, with one AC first class, two AC two tiers, eight AC three tiers and one pantry car and two power cum luggage vans, will stop at 16 stations in Tripura, Assam, West Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

After Guwahati and Dibrugarh in Assam, Agartala becomes the third city in the Northeast to get a Rajdhani. Transport and tourism will get a major boost as people who had to spend at least Rs 8,000 on air travel to reach Delhi via Kolkata and Guwahati will save a lot by hopping on the Agartala-Delhi Rajdhani Express. The passengers will have to pay Rs 7,060 for AC first class, Rs 4,330 for the AC two tier and Rs 3,200 for AC three tier.

Tripura didn't have any railway link with the rest of the country till a metre-gauge line was opened in 2008. Subsequently, the metre gauge was converted into broad gauge last year. The total length of rail line within the state is 202.76 km. 

The Tripura Sundari Express between Agartala and New Delhi, the only other direct train to Delhi, was also launched last year to bring the state in the southern corner of the region closer to the national capital. The Tripura Sundari Express runs once a week on Sundays and takes about 47 hours to reach Delhi via Guwahati-New Jalpaiguri.

The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) now plans to extend the railway lines up to southern Tripura's bordering town Sabroom, 135 km south of Agartala.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is keen to promote tourism in northeast region and has always stressed on strengthening the rail network, earlier said, "We want to develop railway network in the entire northeast and want to make it a tourist hub."