The railway link to Bhutan could come as a boon for Pasakha industrialists

15 October, 2009 - The much-awaited Nehru Golden Jubilee railway will not enter through the Phuentsholing main town and will not have its station in the town as planned, according to officials.

Phuentsholing thrompon Kinzang Norbu said that the new location of the railway station has been finalised to be at Toribari near the Pasakha industrial estate. “The location is feasible to have dry ports since it has vacant and flat land,” said the thrompon.

The location was confirmed after the visit of the economic affairs minister, Lyonpo Khandu Wangchuk, in Phuentsholing last week. The project survey resumed in early August. Tentatively, the railway line will start from Hashimara and go through Satali, Bharna Bari and Dalsingpara to Toribari in Bhutan. The railway link will enter from Alay, near the Reldri higher secondary school.

Initially, the railway was planned from Hasimara to the Phuentsholing main town, but the government requested the government of India to realign the railway line, considering the congestion and acute space problem in Phuentsholing, according to the thrompon.

“Until the alternate location was finalised, works were suspended,” he said. Rail India technical and economical services (RITES) resumed surveying the routes towards the proposed new location since early August this year. RITES is expected to come up with a design of the station with actual route alignment in a few months time.

In the previous tentative plan, 17 km of the 18-km railway line had been planned to be laid within Indian borders and one kilometre in Bhutan. “But, now with the relocation, this break up was changed with about 1.5 km within Bhutan,” said Kinzang Norbu.

The ministry of economic affairs, according to the thrompon, would prepare the land area needed for the dry port.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced the construction of the rail-link commemorating former Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s first visit to Bhutan 50 years ago.

The construction work has been given to RITES under the railway ministry of India, which had also worked on establishing railway lines in Nepal.