Indo-Bangla passenger train to be re-introduced

Kolkata, Mar 27: The much-awaited passenger train service between Kolkata and Dhaka is all set to start 'soon', ending all speculations and bringing cheers on both sides of the international borders.

"In all likelihood the daily Express service between Kolkata and Joydebpur near Dhaka would start within the next three to four months as we hope by that time both the countries would complete all the formalities necessary to run such international operations," said Eastern Railway General Manager Narendra Kumar Goel.

Speaking to newsmen here today about the overall performance of the Eastern Railway during the current fiscal, Mr Goel said following the formal announcement of Railway Minister Lalu Prasad earlier this year about his plan to re-start the Kolkata-Dhaka daily railway service, all out steps were being taken by the Indian Railways to improve the necessary infrastructure including the customs clearance facilities at the Gede border.

He said though the actual running time for the 330 km long journey, including 117 km through Indian territory, would be around eight to nine hours, when introduced it might even take ten to 12 hours because of the formalities for customs clerance of international passengers.

Further elaborating about the entire route, Mr Goel said initially the train would run between Kolkata and Joydebpur, about 35 km short of Dhaka. But within a year the service would be extended upto the Bangladesh capital following the laying of broadgauge track as promised by that government,the Easterern Railway GM said.

Claiminig that almost 90 to 95 per cent work for re-starting the service, closed since 1957, from Kolkata upto the Gede international border in Nadia district,about 115 km from here, had been completed, Mr Goel said they were now awating green signal from the Bangladesh Railway Board before staring the daily service at the earliest.

He said the Indo -Bangla Express train after crossing the Gede Border and entering Bangladesh territory would travel through Jessore, Maimansingh, Pabna and Tangail before entering Dhaka district in the evening. Enroute the ten coach train would stop at 12 stations.

As per the present programme Indian Railways would run the Express train during the first six months,while the Bangladesh Railways would run the service during the second half of every year,Mr Goel said but despite repeated pleas refused to announce the formal timing of re-starting the service.

Incidentally, the then Calcutta-Dhaka rail service was withdrawn because of political reasons in late 1950s despite its huge popularity among the people of both India and the then East Pakistan. Since then several requests had been made to both the railway boards to re start the service. Finally, a limited freight service had initially been launched in 2005 and on the basis of its success the Railway Ministry had now decided to re-launch the passenger service from this year ending long wait and briniging cheers from the people of both the countries.

At present apart from having daily flights, Kolkata and Dhaka have been connected by roads with luxury coaches travelling from both the countries and operating on daily basis since 2003.

UNI