The trail run of a much-awaited new bus service between West Bengal’s Kolkata and Agartala of Tripura via Dhaka is set to begin tomorrow, especially to facilitate movement of the people of India’s two states.
The bus service would be inaugurated during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Dhaka on June 6, Road Transport and Highways Division Secretary MAN Siddique confirmed to the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
Earlier, Kolkata-Dhaka bus service was introduced in 1999 and the other between Agartala and Dhaka in 2003.
Road Transport Minister Obaidul Quader and his Indian counterpart Nitin Gadkari sat on a meeting in New Delhi recently to approve the new bus route.
India’s Kolkata and Tripura dwellers have been demanding for long to introduce a service that allows them to travel between the two provinces through Bangladesh without changing transport.
If a vehicle runs through the Indian land, it would take them almost three days to travel from Kolkata to Tripura’s Agartala. Because, the total straight line distance between Kolkata and Agartala is 1,650km and most of the road is over the hill.
If they can use Bangladesh’s route, the journey will take less than 24 hours. The distance via Dhaka is only 513km.
For this, Bangladesh will have to let them use the land. This demand of transit was hanged in balance for a long time because of bilateral problems.
Apart from this, Bangladesh and India have agreed to start Dhaka-Shilong-Guahati bus service. The test run began on May 22, and if proven okay, the route would be opened permanently during the visit of the Indian premier.
The two governments are also considering of opening bus services on Kolkata-Chittagong, Shilong-Chittagong, Khulna-Kolkata and Jessore-Kolkata routes.