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It was officially announced in the National Capital that Bhutan will be linked with Indian Railway network from two locations in next four years.

The two cross-border Indo-Bhutan railway projects spanning 69 km and 20 km respectively will connect areas of Assam and West Bengal.

The two projects will take off from the network of Indian railways at Kokrajhar and Banarhat.

The investment which is envisaged at this point of time is about 4,033 crore rupees. And the total length is about 90 kilometers. To be precise, 89 kilometers of railway network will be created.

The formal announcement has been made jointly by Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw and Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri.

The take-off of these two projects will happen, one at Banarhat all the way to Samtse. And the other one from Kokrajhar, that will go to Gelephu.

Ashvini Vaishnav said both these lines will “connect two different parts of Bhutan. Both Samtse has big industrial potential. It’s developing every day. New projects are coming up. And Gelephu is a new city which is getting developed.”

In the Samtse line, Bhutanese side is about 2.13 km and the Indian side is about 17.42 km. Whereas, in the case of the Gelephu line, Bhutanese side is 2.39 km and the Indian side is 66.66 km.

The Kokrajhar-Gelephu new line will directly connect Bhutan’s Sarpag district and India’s Kokrajhar and Chirang districts in Assam. It will have a total of six stations namely Balagaon, Garubhasa, Runikhata, Shantipur, Dadgiri and Gelephu.

The project will have two important bridges, two viaducts, 29 major bridges, 65 minor bridges, two Goods shed, one overpass and 39 underpasses. The construction period of the project is four years.