MUNABAO (BARMER), DEC 17 For close to 40 years, Munabao’s only connection with the rest of the world was a slow train to Jodhpur. Now, the last railway station on India’s western border is set for a place on the world map.Come December 31, and Munabao will be set to receive the first train from Khokrapar in Sindh with a station inspired—appropriately enough—by Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport.

The Munabao-Khokrapar railway link will be the first of the India-Pakistan confidence-building measures to get off the ground following the December 2004 talks between the two countries. Both sides inspected the arrangements a few days ago and will meet next week to work out the details.

As of now, everything’s on schedule: on its side, Pakistan has converted the line to broad gauge effectively opening a direct line to Karachi.

As for Munabao, this is a grand second coming. The rail connection with Sindh, almost the sole reason for its existence, was destroyed during the 1965 war; the station itself was bombed several times by Pak aircraft. The last train to cross the border came in for a direct hit: A memorial near the station pays tribute to the driver and the many passengers who died.

For the moment, though, it’s the Munabao makeover that’s the talking point. The nine-km track to Khokrapar has already been laid. Even the 500 metre-long station, with state-of-the-art reservation counters, toilets, lounges, gift shops and medical unit, is complete. There are 20 Customs counters, 28 immigration counters and one for money-changing, to be manned by the State Bank of India.

The tab: Rs 18 crore. Time taken: Less than eight months; the station itself was completed in three months.

Even as railway officials heave a sigh of relief—the project had them travelling to Barmer, 125 km away, for a single wire or nail—the Border Security Force is gearing up for busy times.

Outposts have been put up on all sides of the station and the Central Public Works Department is erecting a 12-ft high fence on either side of the track all the way to zero line.

‘‘Unlike other borders, the Rajasthan boundary has been peaceful as the India-Pakistan border is fenced. The challenge will be to keep an eye out for infiltrators who try to sneak in by train,’’ says BSF IG Prem Mohan Das, who is posted in Barmer.

Passengers arriving from Pakistan will not be permitted to move out of the station. They will undergo checks and proceed to Jodhpur.

While India has decided to extend the Jodhpur train to Khokrapar, there will be no halts on the Jodhpur-Munabao stretch. After three-hour checks at Munabao, the train will proceed to cross the border.

‘‘The 12 km between Munabao and Khokrapar will be the most crucial from the security point of view,’’ says a senior intelligence officer. ‘‘On the Indian side, BSF jeeps will run along with the train till the zero line.’’

Railway officials at Munabao say they have already started getting inquiries from passengers keen to travel to Pakistan. But the fact that the revival of the railway line is a double-edged sword is nowhere more apparent than at Akla, the last sizeable settlement before Munabao.

While villagers hope the investment and interest in the railway station three km away will turn around their fortunes by way of job opportunities and increased business, others fear it will end the peace that the region has grown used to in the past 40 years.

‘‘You never know who’s coming on the train to meet their relatives and who’s coming with other motives,’’ says Raichand Sharma, an influential businessman, whose ancestors traded in spice in Sindh.

Still, many in the villages of Akla and Gadra hope to cross the border. ‘‘Before 1965, we’d just walk across to meet our relatives, but everything changed with the war. Pakistani forces entered Gadra village, they bombed houses and trains,’’ says Fahad Ali, a retired armyman.