KOLKATA: Railways officials hope to ready within the next two or three months short-term measures to flag off the proposed passenger train to Bangladesh, Narendra Kumar Goel, Eastern Railway (ER) general manager, said.

Addressing a press meet here, he said that a long-term plan had been sent to the Railways Ministry.

He said that several measures, such as customs check and emigration, needed to be put in place before starting the train. "The 10-coach train will run non-stop between Sealdah/Kolkata and Joydevpur/Dhaka. The 240-km distance is expected to be covered in about eight hours running time."

"We held discussions at Gede station yesterday [on Monday] to determine our plan of action," Mr. Goel said, adding that encroachments at Gede needed to be cleared.

Facilities would also have to be developed at this station, such as segregation for customs and emigration clearance. The platform's width and length too needed to be expanded, he said. The train would run during daytime on a daily basis.

At present, goods trains are running from Gede and Petrapole on the Indian side to Darshana and Benapole on the Bangladesh side. The Railways team will meet their counterparts in Bangladesh to finalise the route timings and fare structure, according to Mr. Goel.

Mr. Goel said that global tenders had been floated by the Railway Board for selecting a consultant for devising a conceptual plan and detailed design for developing 19 world-class stations, of which Howrah in Eastern Railways was one. Three consultants would be engaged, one each for technical, financial and legal matters.

The loss-making ER was targeting to turnaround within a couple of years, Mr. Goel said adding that earnings rose by 15.2 per cent between April and February 2006-07 touching Rs. 2639.8 crore.

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