Faster, better passenger train connectivity between India and Bangladesh from November

Come November, passenger rail connectivity between India and Bangladesh will become faster and better, putting indirect pressure on airfares between Kolkata and Dhaka which rule at over ₹7000, on an average.

An announcement in this regard is expected during the External Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj’s, visit to Dhaka next week.

Beginning November 3, the journey time on Maitree Express between Dhaka and Kolkata will be reduced from nine to six hours, with the doing away of two-phased immigration checks at the Indian border of Gede and the Bangladeshi border of Darshana.

“Currently the passengers are expected to alight from the train along with the luggage at the border gates for immigration checks. From November 3, we will introduce end-to-end immigration checks at Kolkata and Dhaka like airports,” a source told BusinessLine .

The Railways has already announced plans to make Maitree Express fully air-conditioned. Considering that the train tickets cost barely ₹1500, the reduced journey time and less hassles will surely make it more attractive when compared to the costlier air travel.

India and Bangladesh will also start a second passenger train service between Kolkata and Khulna beginning November 16. The service was operational till 1965.

Unlike the Maitree Express that enters Bangladesh through the Gede-Darshana border, the Khulna-Kolkata service will run through the Petrapole-Benapole border. The rail-link, opened by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in 2001, remained grossly underutilised so far.

India has already stepped up visa approvals to Bangladeshi nationals to record levels. The number of Bangladeshi travellers to India increased from 7.5 lakh in 2015 to 9.33 lakh in 2016. In the first six months of 2017, seven lakh Bangladeshis visited India.

India and Bangladesh currently have four operational rail links between West Bengal and the Western Bangladesh. These are: Petrapole-Benapole, Gede-Darshana, Radhikapur-Biral and Singhabad-Rohanpur. Radhikapur-Biral and Singhabad-Rohanpur are also notified for use of Nepalese transit traffic.

According to sources, efforts are now on to operationalise two more rail connections by next year to return to the pre-1965 status of six rail connections between India and Bangladesh.

The upcoming connections are Haldibari-Chilahati in northern part of West Bengal and Bangladesh and Shahbazpur in eastern Bangladesh with Mahisasan in Assam. Of the two, Bangladesh has already completed its part of the work in Haldibari-Chilahati route that will connect Bhutan in due course.

Meanwhile, three more rail connections are proposed between the two nations to take the total to nine. Akhaura-Agartala and Feni-Belonia will connect Tripura with Bangladesh and the Bangladeshi port of Chittagong.

The ninth rail link will connect Panchagarh in North-Western Bangladesh with Siliguri, opening scope for future cargo movement.

Meanwhile, the Indian government is bullish on conducting trial run of a container train between Kolkata and Dhaka (through Gede Darshana) in November to bring down the logistics cost which is abnormally high due to dominance of road cargo in bilateral trade.

Currently, railways shares one-third of the cargo in volume terms but in value terms the share is negligible.

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