NEW DELHI: India has announced its first-ever cross-border railway project with Bhutan, slated to connect the landlocked mountainous neighbor with its nearly 70,000-km railway network in four years.
The $454 million project will connect the eastern Indian states of Assam and West Bengal to two towns in Bhutan. Together, the lines will cover a total distance of 89 km.
The project agreement was signed on Monday evening by Bhutan’s Foreign Secretary Pema Choden and Indian Railway Board CEO Satish Kumar.
“The construction period will be about four years for this project. All the land schedules, everything has already been done … And very soon, we’ll start the construction work,” India’s Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told reporters in New Delhi.
“Both goods and passengers will be using these two lines … The entire area will get connected. And lots of goods’ movement, which takes days today, will start happening in a few hours.”
