Mahisasan is a border railway station and a defunct railway transit facility point on the India–

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

border in

Karimganj district Karimganj district is one of the 34 districts of the Indian state of Assam. Karimganj town is both the administrative headquarters district and the biggest town of this district. It is located in southern Assam and borders Tripura and the Sylh ...

in the Indian state of

Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...

. The corresponding station on the Bangladesh side is Shahbajpur (also known as Latu) in

Sylhet District Sylhet ( bn, সিলেট), located in north-east Bangladesh, is the divisional capital and one of the four districts in the Sylhet Division. History Sylhet district was established on 3 January 1782, and until 1878 it was part of Bengal Pro ...

. The border station is linked to

Karimganj Karimganj is a city in the Karimganj District of the Indian state of Assam. It is the administrative headquarters of the district. Karimganj city is located at . The area of Karimganj city is 16.09 km2. It has an average elevation of 13& ...

away. The Mahisasan–Shahbajpur route has not been operational since December, 1996 due to lack of traffic.

History

In response to the demand of the Assam tea planters for a railway link to

Chittagong port The Chittagong Port ( bn, চট্টগ্রাম বন্দর) is the main seaport of Bangladesh. Located in Bangladesh's port city of Chittagong and on the banks of the Karnaphuli River, the port handles over 90 percent of Bangladesh's ...

Assam Bengal Railway The Assam Bengal Railway (ABR) was one of the pioneering railway companies in British India. Headquartered in Chittagong, it functioned from 1892 to 1942. History Assam Bengal Railway was incorporated in 1892 to serve British-owned tea plantat ...

started construction of a railway track on the eastern side of

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

in 1891. A track between Chittagong and Comilla was opened to traffic in 1895. The Comilla–Akhaura–Kulaura–Badarpur section was opened in 1896–1898 and finally extended to in 1903. Mahisasan was a station on this track. With the partition of India in 1947, it assumed importance as a border station.

Broad gauge

The

Railway Budget Railway budget of India was the Annual Financial Statement of the state-owned Indian Railways, which handles rail transport in India. It was presented every year by the Minister of Railways, representing the Ministry of Railways, in the Parliam ...

for 2011–12 has approved the conversion of the metre-gauge Karimganj-Mahisasan section to broad gauge. Now this a broad-gauge single-track non-electrified line. Currently 2 passenger trains are running in this line from Silchar, Maishashan–Silchar Passenger

Metre gauge

Earlier it was functioning as a metre-gauge railway station, but after 2015, it was upgraded to BG.

Trans-Asian Railway

Currently, all freight traffic originating from Asia destined for Europe goes by sea. The Trans-Asian Railway will enable containers from Singapore, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand and Korea to travel over land by train to Europe. The Southern Corridor of the Trans-Asian Railway is of prime interest to India. It connects

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked Provinces of China, province in Southwest China, the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is ...

in China and

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

with Europe via Turkey and passes through India. There is a general understanding between India and Myanmar that their railways will be interconnected via a 346-km line section that will extend from

Kalay Kalay ( my, ကလေး), also known as Kale, is a town in the Sagaing Region of Myanmar. It is located upstream from Mandalay and Monywa on the Myittha River, a tributary of the Chindwin River. The town is the district headquarters of the Kalay ...

in Myanmar to

Jiribam Jiribam ( Meitei pronunciation:/jee-ree-baam/) is a municipal council in the Jiribam district of the state of Manipur, India. It is one of the fastest-growing towns in Manipur. The town is located on the state's westernmost boundary, adjoining ...

in India via the border point at

Tamu Tamu may refer to: * Texas A&M University or TAMU * Tamu, Myanmar ** Tamu District, Myanmar ** Tamu Township * Ta'mu, rice cooked in woven coconut leaves from the Philippines * Tamu Massif, an inactive underwater volcano in the Pacific * '' Helio ...

Moreh Givat HaMoreh (Hebrew: גבעת המוֹרֶה), in Arabic: Jebel ed-Duhy, is a hill in northern Israel on the northeast side of the Jezreel Valley. The highest peak reaches an altitude of , while the bottom of the Jezreel Valley is situated at ...

. The proposed route will enter India through

and Moreh in

Manipur Manipur () ( mni, Kangleipak) is a state in Northeast India, with the city of Imphal as its capital. It is bounded by the Indian states of Nagaland to the north, Mizoram to the south and Assam to the west. It also borders two regions of Myanm ...

bordering

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

, then enter

through Mahisasan and Shahbajpur and again enter India from Bangladesh at Gede. On the western side, the line will enter Pakistan at

Attari Attari, also spelled Atari, is a village of Amritsar district in the Punjab state of India, 3 km from the Indo-Pakistani border at Wagah. It is situated 25 km west of the Sikh holy city of Amritsar, and is the last Indian station on ...

. There is a missing link on this route in the India–Myanmar sector; of this, , in India, is between

in Manipur and Tamu in Myanmar. The rail link between Jiribam and

Imphal Imphal ( Meitei pronunciation: /im.pʰal/; English pronunciation: ) is the capital city of the Indian state of Manipur. The metropolitan centre of the city contains the ruins of Kangla Palace (also known as Kangla Fort), the royal seat of the fo ...

has been sanctioned by Indian Railways, but that is unlikely to be completed before 2016. At present construction work is in progress in a stretch between Jiribam and Tupul.

References

{{Railway stations in Assam Bangladesh–India railway border crossings Railway stations in Karimganj district