Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi are set to virtually reopen a defunct cross-border rail route after a gap of 55 years.
Both the prime ministers will relaunch rail communications between Chilahati in Bangladesh and Haldibari in India's West Bengal on December 17, an official of the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) said on Thursday, reports Hindustan Times.
The railway line from Haldibari in Cooch Behar to Chilahati in northern Bangladesh has been defunct after rail links between India and then East Pakistan had snapped in 1965.
NFR Chief Public Relations Officer Subhanan Chanda said: "Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate Haldibari-Chilahati rail route on December 17."
He said a cargo train will run from Chilahati to Haldibari, which is under the Katihar division of the NFR, to mark the opening of the route.
Katihar Divisional Railway Manager Ravinder Kumar Verma said the Ministry of External Affairs on Tuesday informed the authorities of the decision to reopen the rail route.
The distance between Haldibari railway station and the international border is 4.5 kilometres while that from Chilahati till the zero point is around 7.5 kilometres, sources at the NFR said.
Both Haldibari and Chilahati stations were on the old broad gauge railway route between Siliguri and Kolkata that went through areas in present-day Bangladesh.
When passenger train service begins on this route, people will be able to travel to Kolkata from Jalpaiguri, which is near Siliguri, in seven hours, five hours less than what it takes now, Verma said after visiting Haldibari station on Wednesday.
At present, the Maitree Express runs between Dhaka and Kolkata as the lone cross-border passenger train service.