Indo-Bangla train trial run today

By Haroon Habib

DHAKA, JULY 10. Bangladesh and India will go for a trial run of a passenger train between the two countries in the next two days, which is expected to revive regular rail service between the neighbours after nearly four decades.

The trial run from the Bangladesh side will take place on July 11 when a delegation of mostly technical persons will proceed towards Sealdah in a special train from the eastern side of the Bangabandhu Bridge on river Padma, the communications ministry said. There will be eight compartments in the train with officials from the ministries of communications, home and foreign affairs. It will leave at 10 a.m. and is scheduled to arrive at Sealdah at 7 p.m.

Regular train service is expected later in the year and the possibility of Dhaka-Kolkata direct rail service by the end of 2002 or early 2003, according to sources.

Wednesday's journey will be a prelude to regular service, the schedule of which is yet to be finalised. The sources said the trial run of the Indian train would take place on July 12 and the train from Kolkata would come up to the eastern side of the Bangabandhu Bridge.

The return journey of the Bangladesh train from India will start at 8 a.m. and reach the eastern side of the Bangabandhu Bridge at 5 p.m. on July 12.

Prospects of a passenger train service between the two countries was brightened when the links for goods trains between Bangladesh and India were restored via Petrapole in India and Benapole in Bangladesh on January 24 this year.

The train from Bangladesh will reach Sealdah via Darshana and Gede in Nadia. Before the service was discontinued in 1965, some trains from the erstwhile East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) also used to go to Kolkata via Darshana. The possibility of running passenger trains between the two countries through Benapole- Petrapole will be looked into at a later stage, the sources said.

The direct train service between the then East Bengal (present Bangladesh), which was started in the early 20s, continued till 1965. The India-Pakistan war destroyed the communication links. Efforts to revive the service after the war in 1971, had to be abandoned following the political changeover in 1975. Fresh initiatives were taken after the present government assumed office in 1996. Because of non-use for more than three decades, the tracks, particularly the portion between Jessore and Bongaon, have been damaged.

The Bangladesh and Indian officials last Thursday signed a Memorandum of Understanding in New Delhi for operating passenger train service between the two countries. They expressed the hope that regular service would begin by the year-end.

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