5 more routes by 2018

As part of efforts to boost trade and improve rail communication, five rail routes will be launched between Bangladesh and India in phases by 2018.

Freight services will begin on the route from Biral in Dinajpur to Radhikapur in West Bengal by December this year and passenger services on Khulna-Kolkata route via Benapole by early next year, according to senior officials of Bangladesh Railway.

The other three are Shahbazpur-Mahisasan, Akhaura-Agartala and Chilahati-Holdibari routes, which will be used for carrying goods, said the officials.

The initiative has been taken in line with the agreement signed between the prime ministers of the two countries in 2012, Rafiqul Alam, additional director general (infrastructure) of Bangladesh Railway, told The Daily Star.  

In addition to the five routes, Dhaka and New Delhi are mulling over launching a few more rail routes, which include Feni-Belonia, Burimari-Changrabandha and Banglabandha-Siliguri routes, said Bangladesh Railway officials.

At present, three rail routes are operational between the two neighbouring countries. The route from Darshana in Chuadanga to Gede in West Bengal is used for carrying both passengers and goods and the other two -- Benapole-Petrapole and Rohanpur-Singhabad routes -- for freight services.

Rafiqul said, “We will start operating passenger trains on the Khulna-Kolkata route by early next year... Talks are going on with the Indian side.”

He said they wouldn't need to lay railway tracks to launch the service. But repair work has to be done, and the customs and immigration facilities have to be put in place for operating passenger trains on the route.

“Once these are done, we will be able to start the service.” And people of the southern region would not need to travel to Dhaka to go to Kolkata. They would be able to go to India easily from Khulna by train, he said.

Meanwhile, exchanging views with the C&F Agents Association in Benapole yesterday, Harsh Vardhan Shringla, Indian high commissioner in Dhaka, said the Khulna-Kolkata passenger train service would be launched by early next year to improve communication between Bangladesh and India.

The governments of both the countries are sincere in boosting trade through Benapole and Petrapole land ports, he said.

The launching of the passenger train service would ease sufferings of people, the Indian high commissioner said, adding that India would issue five-year multiple visas for Bangladeshi businesspeople.  

Rail communication between India and Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) on all seven routes was suspended after the 1965 Indo-Pak war. Following Bangladesh's independence, rail communication between India and Bangladesh resumed on three of the routes.