Union Minister Pratima Bhoumik on Saturday said Tripura is set to get Vande Bharat Express, a medium-distance superfast train service with the Northeastern Frontier Railway working on electrification of tracks.

The North East Frontier Railway (NFR) has already begun works on the electrification of the existing railway network from Dharmanagar to Agartala. It is expected to be completed by June or July.

"It will take only four to five hours to reach Guwahati from Agartala once the Vande Bharat express train is extended up to Agartala after the electrification works," the Union minister of State for Social Justice and Social Empowerment said during an election rally at Dhanpur in the Tripura West Lok Sabha constituency.

Bhoumik said, "They (previous governments) had taken 44 years to bring a train from Dharmanagar (entry point to Tripura) to Churaibari, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi took only two years to take the broad gauge railway service up to Agartala. The train service has been made available up to Sabroom by 2020." Sabroom is situated in the southern part of the state.

The BJP leader said, "I had a meeting with the Union Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw regarding the railway works in the northeastern states and found out that the electrification work up to Agartala is expected to be completed by June or July." Once the electrification work is completed, Vande Bharat Express will be extended up to Agartala and the Tripura people would reach Guwahati within four to five hours. At present, it takes 12 hours for people to travel between the two destinations by train.

The development in railway connectivity has been possible because of Modi ji, she said.

The state has got as many as six universities in the past six years, besides various welfare schemes such as PMAY, PM-Kishan, Ayushman Bharat and Jan Dhan Yojana, Bhoumik said.

Bhoumik, who won from the Tripura West Lok Sabha constituency in the 2019 polls by over three lakh votes, was denied a ticket this time.

She also won last year's Assembly election from Dhanpur but later she resigned due to an 'unknown reason' and continues to be the minister of state.

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