India and Bhutan will construct their first cross-border railway connections, New Delhi announced Monday, with the $454-million project expected to be completed within four years.
Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said India- Bhutan’s biggest trading partner- has been central to the Himalayan nation’s economic growth and infrastructure upgrades.
Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the new lines would transform connectivity. “Goods movement that currently takes days will happen within hours,” he told reporters, adding that the projects would greatly benefit Bhutanese communities.
The main 69-kilometre (43-mile) line, costing 34.56 billion rupees ($390 million), will run from Kokrajhar in India’s northeast to Gelephu, a Bhutanese border town of about 10,000 residents.
A second link, 20 kilometres long and valued at 5.77 billion rupees ($64 million), will connect Bhutan’s industrial hub Samtse with Banarhat in eastern India.
Landlocked Bhutan, with fewer than 800,000 people, sits between China and India and is best known for prioritising “Gross National Happiness” over GDP. Yet it is now seeking to develop Gelephu into a special economic zone to attract investment and tourism—where the new rail lines are expected to play a pivotal role.
“It is envisaged as an economic hub linking Bhutan with South Asia and Southeast Asia,” Misri said.
Vaishnaw added that the lines will be electric and built with environmental safeguards in mind.
