President Droupadi Murmu on Thursday flagged-off two trains — Agartala-Guwahati-Kolkata Special Express and Jan Shatabdi Express, which would connect Tripura’s capital Agartala to Khongsang in Manipur.

The President, along with Tripura’s Chief Minister Manik Saha, flagged-off the two trains under the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) at Agartala railway station, on the outskirts of the city.

In a tweet regarding the same, President’s office wrote: “President Droupadi Murmu flagged off Agartala-Khongsang Jan Shatabdi Express and Agartala-Kolkata Express from Agartala Railway station. The trains connecting Tripura to Assam, West Bengal and Manipur will boost connectivity and tourism in the North East region.”

NFR’s Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) Sabyasachi De said that with the aim of further strengthen rail connectivity of Tripura with the rest of the country, the Guwahati-Kolkata-Guwahati Express train extended up-to Tripura capital Agartala with functioning once in a week.

The express train would run with a composition of 14 coaches. In its regular run, the express train (Agartala-Kolkata) would depart from Agartala on every Wednesday morning to reach Kolkata on the next day afternoon. In return direction, the train would depart from Kolkata on every Sunday to reach Agartala on Tuesday evening.

The CPRO asserted that Jan Shatabdi Express train between Agartala to Jiribam upto Khongsang in Manipur would function thrice in a week — Monday, Wednesday & Friday. This section has been newly constructed under the 110 km long Jiribam- Imphal new line project.

De said that train journey (Agartala to Khongsang) travel time would be less than half as the journey time would be around seven hours covering a distance of 300 Km against around 15 hours or so by road.

The Jan Shatabdi Express train would be having new Linke Hofmann Busch coaches with latest amenities for passengers, he, said adding that a Vistadome coach has also been added in this train to facilitate the passenger to witness the picturesque scenery of the mountainous region during the journey.

The Vistadome coaches with transparent glass windows and roofs providing 360-degree view are equipped with state of the art glass windows and all glass roofs for providing view of the sky, mountains, tunnels, bridges, hills, tea gardens and lush green forests to the travellers.

(With Inputs From IANS)