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India-Bangladesh new rail and bus services |
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While a regular bus service between the Bangladesh capital, Dhaka, and Agartala
in the northeastern Indian State of Tripura has been inaugurated, a trial run of a passenger train service between Sealdah (Kolkata) and Bangabandhu Bridge, east of Bangladesh, was conducted on July 10. The train will eventually be extended to Dhaka. The first in 36 years a Bangladesh passenger train with seven coaches reached Gede station in Nadia district of West Bengal on July 11 on a trial run. The train carried a senior official delegation from Bangladesh which was warmly greeted by Indian officials. Regular train service is expected later in the year and the possibility of Dhaka-Kolkata direct rail service by the end of 2002. Prospects of a passenger train service between the two countries was brightened when the links for goods trains between Bangladesh and India were restored via Petrapole in India and Benapole in Bangladesh on January 24 this year. The possibility of running a passenger train between the two countries through Benapole-Petrapole will be looked into at a later stage, sources said.
The direct train service between the then East Bengal (present Bangladesh), which was started in the early 20s, continued till 1965. The India-Pakistan war destroyed the communication links. Efforts to revive the service after the war in 1971, had to be abandoned following the political changeover in 1975. Fresh initiatives were taken after the present Government assumed office in 1996. Because of non-use for more than three decades, the tracks, particularly the portion between Jessore and Bongaon, have been damaged. The Bangladesh and Indian officials last week signed a memorandum of understanding in New Delhi for operating passenger train service between the two countries. They expressed the hope that regular service would begin by the year-end.
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