Indo-Bangla train link from June

India and Bangladesh are set to move closer with the restoration of a five-kilometre rail track that has been lying unused for nearly five decades.

To begin with, freight trains will cover the distance between Bongaon in India and Petrapol in Bangladesh from June with passenger trains following thereafter, Indian Railway sources told India Abroad News Service.

A sum of Rs. 50 million ($1.19 million) has already been sanctioned for the restoration of the old line, most of which has been uprooted and stolen.

Train services between the two countries were abandoned in the early '50s following deterioration of relations between India and the then East Pakistan which eventually fought and won independence from Pakistan and became Bangladesh in 1971. Talks on the resumption of the rail link had come up several times, but had been subsequently abandoned for one reason or another.

During this period, organised gangs stole not only the tracks but even the telegraph poles that dotted the line. The bigger problem however was squatters who had occupied the land on either side of the track.

According to North 24-Parganas additional district magistrate Deboprasad Jana, a meeting would be held on January 15 among the people's representatives of the area and railway, police and district authorities to chalk out plans to clear the land as the first step towards the restoration work.

The issue of restoration of the track was taken up seriously at the last South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit in Dhaka where then Indian Prime Minister I.K. Gujral and his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina Wajed stressed the need to improve communications between the two countries. Restoration of the rail link was considered the main way to achieve this end.

The SAARC meeting was followed by the visit of a high level railway delegation to the Bongaon-Petrapol area. The Rs. 50 million budget was sanctioned on the recommendation of the delegation. The stolen railway equipment alone was worth Rs. 30 million ($714,000).

According to district authorities, the biggest challenge to the restoration work would be clearing the encroachers. About 200 families settled over the stretch would have to be relocated before work could start on restoring the route.

Once the line is restored, pressure on the single-lane Jessore road that links India with Bangladesh will be reduced and more goods could be transported.

Meanwhile, the Calcutta-Dhaka bus service, which was to have been inaugurated by Sheikh Hasina on January 27, has been postponed as some modalities still remained to be sorted out.

According to Bangladeshi High Commission Press Minister Atiqur Rehman, finalisation of the modalities would take some more time and the service was expected to be operational "very soon".

A mission source, who did not wish to be identified, told IANS that the only hitch that remained was regarding a Bangladeshi transport rule which would soon be sorted out.

--India Abroad News Service