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National

India-Bangladesh train service from today

Special Correspondent

The service resumes after a gap of 43 years

“Maitree Express” to be flagged off from Kolkata station
Twice-a-week train covers a distance of 406 km

KOLKATA: All is set for the resumption of passenger train services between India and Bangladesh on Monday, 43 years after they were suspended at the time of the India-Pakistan war and when Bangladesh was East Pakistan.

The “Maitree Express” is to be flagged off from Kolkata station in the north of the city on its inaugural run to the Dhaka Cantonment station shortly after 7 a.m. on a day auspicious to those belonging to either side of the West Bengal-Bangladesh border – “Poila Baishak”, the Bengali New Year’s Day.

The train is scheduled to reach its destination at 8.30 p.m. BST (Bangladesh Standard Time) after halts at Gede in West Bengal’s Nadia district and Darshana in Bangladesh for security, customs and immigration checks. The journey covers a distance of 406 km.

The Dhaka–Kolkata “Maitree Express” will make its journey from the Dhaka Cantonment railway station the same day.

There was a flutter on Sunday in the Bankimnagar station on the Ranaghat–Gede section of the Eastern Railway in Nadia district, following the recovery of four crude bombs near the railway tracks along which the “Maitree Express” is to pass on Monday.

Patrolling by the government railway police along the route has been intensified in a district, where Maoists have been reported to be active in recent times, an Eastern Railway official said here.

At Gede station passengers will have to go through customs and immigration checks to be conducted by the Indian authorities and for which the required infrastructure has been set up.

Another round of similar formalities awaits them at Darshana station to be supervised by the Bangladeshi authorities, the official added.

The “Maitree Express” comprises six coaches and a pantry car. It will run twice a week – on Saturdays and Sundays. Bookings for seats in the train were open here on April 11.

Prior to 1947 there was a regular overnight railway service from here to Goalandu and further up to Dhaka (then Dacca) via Narayangunj. At the time of Partition there were three train services from Sealdah (in Kolkata) to different destinations of then East Pakistan.

The trains that ran then were the East Bengal Mail, the East Bengal Express and the Barisal Express – all of which were in operation till 1965.

“There already exist freight services between the two countries,” the official added. Services were started in 1972 but called off due to inadequate patronage.

In 2000 the services were restored when the Petrapole-Benapole rail link was commissioned. Presently India and Bangladesh have three inter-change points, two of which are in Gede and Petrapole under the Eastern Railway and in Darshana and Benapole on the Bangladesh side.

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