Rail link in Tripura in the interest of the country:CM

Agartala, Jan 18: Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar has said the expansion of rail link in this hilly backward state was urgent considering the interest of the country as a whole.

Mr Sarkar, who returned yesterday after attending a Planning Commission meeting at the capital on Tuesday, told sources that as Tripura was surrounded by Bangladesh there should be rail link "for various reasons".

He said the demand for expansion of rail line upto Sabroom, the southern-most part of the state close to Bangladesh's Chittagong Hill Tracts, was raised during the meeting.

About the conversion of the lone National Highway No. 44 in the state into four lanes, the chief minister said, the Union Government itself accepted this, as the demand was genuine.He, however, demanded inclusion of the proposed conversion of NH 44 into four lanes under ''phase A'' for its early implementation.

UNI