Candidates across the country will now be allowed to write the Railway Recruitment Board exams in their respective mother tongue, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee announced today.

Banerjee said a new centre of the Railway Recruitment Board would be set up here to facilitate the youths in North Bengal in taking up the exams.

“Siliguri would be the 21st Railway Recruitment Board centre of the country and it would start functioning within a couple of months,” the minister said.

“Henceforth, it will be easier for the youths of North Bengal to sit for railway recruitment examinations... and people of every state would be allowed to write answer scripts in their respective mother tongue,” Banerjee said.

She made the announcement while flagging off the weekly New Jalpaiguri-Digha ‘Paharia’ Express, which would connect North Bengal with the coastal tourist town of Digha in East Midnapore district.

Paharia Express would leave New Jalpaiguri on Fridays at 9 pm and would reach Digha at 12 noon next day. From Digha, it would start at 4.20 pm and reach New Jalpaiguri next day at 8.45 am.

The minister told reporters she would visit Siliguri next week to lay the foundation stone of the Rs 1,013-crore project connecting Sevoke in Darjeeling with Rangpoo in Sikkim to bring the Himalayan state of Sikkim on the Railway map.