India to build first cross-border railway with Bhutan
India's Narendra Modi (centre), with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi jinping in Tianjin on Sep 1, 2025. (Photo: AFP/Suo Takekuma/Pool)
NEW DELHI: India and Bhutan will build their first cross-border railway lines in a US$454 million project set to be completed within four years, New Delhi announced on Monday (Sep 29).
The initial 69km railway will link India’s northeastern city of Kokrajhar with Gelephu, a Bhutanese border town of around 10,000 people. A second 20km line will connect Bhutan’s northwestern industrial hub of Samtse with Banarhat in eastern India.
Indian foreign secretary Vikram Misri said his country, Bhutan’s main trading partner — "has played a vital role" in modernising the Himalayan kingdom’s economy and infrastructure.
"The entire area will get connected. And lots of goods movement, which takes days today, will start happening in a few hours," Indian Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told reporters.
BOOST TO GELEPHU ECONOMIC HUB
Bhutan, a landlocked nation of fewer than 800,000 people, is wedged between China and India and is famous for prioritising “Gross National Happiness” over economic growth.
But it is banking on developing Gelephu as an economic and investment hub, with the new railway considered central to the project.
"It is envisaged as an economic hub connecting Bhutan with South Asia and Southeast Asia," Misri said.
Vaishnaw added that the new train lines would be electric and designed to be as environmentally friendly as possible.
