4-nation friendship motor rally enters Bangladesh

Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal (BBIN) Friendship Motor Rally entered Bangladesh through Bilonia border in the district yesterday.

Feni district administration, police administration, Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and thousands of local people welcomed with wreaths as the 80-member delegation on 22 SUVs reached the Bangladesh border from Agartala of Indian state of Tripura in the afternoon.

After completing the immigration formalities, the delegates stayed at BGB Outpost at Majumderhat for a while before joining lunch at the Circuit House.

Lawmaker to Feni-2 constituency Nizam Uddin Hazari, Feni Deputy Commissioner Md Humayun Kabir Khandaker, Feni BGB Battalion-4 Commander Lt Col Md Shamim Iftekhar and Feni Additional Superintendent of Police Shamsul Alam Sarker were present at the programme, among others, from Bangladesh side.

MLA from Bhubaneshwar in India Prabin Bhojdeya, Dakkhin Tripura District Magistrate Debashish Basu, Dakkhin Tripura Superintendent of Police BR Chakrabarty, and Indian BSF 168 Battalion's acting commander AK Mishra attended from Indian side.

Ramesh Mahapatra is working as the team coordinator.

The rally will make stopover in Chittagong the same day and start for the capital today. A seminar on the four-nation Motor Vehicle Agreement (MVA) will be held in the city's Sonargaon Hotel tomorrow.

The four-nation Friendship Motor Rally started from Bhubaneshwar in India's Odisha state on November 15 as part of the MVA.

The team includes six Bangladeshi nationals.

The BBIN motor rally will cover 4,223km in 19 days, passing through Ranchi, Patna, Siliguri, Gangtok, Phuentsholing, Thimphu, Mongar, Samdrup Jonkhar, Guwahati, Sikkim, Silchar, Agartala, Chittagong, Dhaka and ending at the Victoria Memorial in Kolkata, officials said.

Apart from advocating road safety throughout the route, there will be four seminars in Gangtok, Thimphu, Dhaka and Kolkata to spread importance of the BBIN Agreement for enabling smooth transit of passenger and cargo vehicles among the four nations.