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A friendship train back on the rails after four decades

— Photo: AFP

THE WAY FORWARD: An Indian policeman clears the track for the Moitree Express at the Kolkata railway station on April 14.

It was a cherished dream come true. On April 14, as Bengalis celebrated Pahela Baishak, the first two trains carrying nostalgic passengers from India and Bangladesh respectively, crossed the border, connecting the historic cities of Dhaka and Kolkata once again after four decades.

On this Bengali New Year’s day, the maiden journey of the Moitree Express — the friendship train — reconnected Bangladesh with West Bengal after 43 years.

The train from Dhaka which left early in the morning reached Chitpur in Kolkata around 9.30 p.m. Bangladesh time. The train from Kolkata reached the Dhaka Cantonment station around 8.30 p.m. the same day. There was goodwill — and flower petals — galore on both sides of the border. A huge crowd from nearby localities thronged the Darshana station bordering Bangladesh to witness the maiden run.

Pahela Baishakh not only marked a new year this time, but also provided an occasion to put behind the bitterness of strife and to journey together on the same track for better days.

Under an agreement between India and Bangladesh, two trains will initially run on the Dhaka-Kolkata route every Saturday and Sunday.

While air and road links between Bangladesh and India are being strengthened, the inauguration of the direct passenger train service created hopes for further people-to-people contact. Many people expect the train service to substantially contribute to consolidating ties between the two neighbours. Those who took the first trains, however, said that in order to ensure a hassle-free journey, some key issues relating to the service should be addressed, the major one being customs clearance.

Surprisingly, the 538-km journey — 418 km of it in Bangladesh and 120 km in India — took 13 hours, including the five hours it took for the customs formalities on both sides of the border.

The trains carried many elderly passengers who were able to avail themselves of the service after four decades.

K.S. Zaman, 78, who had visited Kolkata by train twice before the service was snapped following the India-Pakistan war in 1965, said: “Everything changed after the war. The people of Bengal who had been together for thousands of years became victims of politics. This train service brings us together again.”

Mr. Zaman, who was forced to migrate from Kolkata to East Pakistan during the post-Partition riots in 1947, said he was going to visit his relatives living in a village near Kolkata where he was born.

Sheikh Raisul Haque, another passenger, said he took the train to give his sons the ‘same flavour’ he got when he had travelled with his father 46 years ago. “I went to Kolkata in 1962 when I was student of Class III,” he said.

Momena Begum, 75, from Bangladesh’s Bikrampur, said she had missed the service. “I was around 12 when I travelled with my elder sister to Kolkata,” Ms. Momena, travelling with her son Harunur Rashid, said.

The resumption of the cross-border service, originally scheduled to start in August 2007, was delayed as India and Bangladesh worked to narrow down their differences over what officials called a “security cage” near the no-man’s land. The caretaker government’s council of advisers decided on February 24 to clear the way as it approved the Indian proposal for the construction of a box-type temporary fence on the no-man’s land. The Indian side has put up the fence on its side. Bangladesh hopes to complete it in six months.

Prior to 1965, there were several trains from Sealdah to East Pakistan: the East Bengal Express, the East Bengal Mail, and the Barisal Express. A passenger service also ran from Karimganj in Assam to Kulaura in East Pakistan.

After the 1965 war, when all these services ceased, freight trains ran on the Petrapole-Benapole, Gede-Darshana and Sinhabad-Rohanpur lines off and on. The freight train services became more regular after transport agreements were signed by the two countries in the 1990s.

The opening of the railway service between the two neighbours, which share over 400 sq km of porous border, will expand mass transportation, result in greater interaction between the people not only in tourism terms but also in terms of trade, commerce and cultural exchanges. The direct passenger train service has opened a new chapter. An Indian national, Janatosh Pal, who left his native Barisal in 1946, returned to his ‘motherland’ after 62 years. “This was my last wish — to visit my motherland before death. This train is a god-send.”

Santosh Bashak, another elderly Indian, had left Sirajgonj in 1964 during the East Pakistan riots. On the train he had had a running argument with the officials that he should not be dragged to Dhaka but be dropped in Sirajgonj, his home town in northern Bangladesh, which he had left four decades ago. He was, after much argument, allowed to get down at Sirajgonj.

India and Pakistan, despite wars and conflicts, have reintroduced the Thar Express and the Samjhauta Express running between them. Moitree Express has added a new chapter on another front.

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