Photo: PIB, India

NEW DELHI, June 01, 2022 (BSS) - The third India-Bangladesh train service 'Mitali Express' started its operations between New Jalpaiguri in West Bengal and Cantonment station in Dhaka aimed at boosting connectivity between the two countries.

Bangladesh Railway Minister Nurul Islam Sujan and his Indian counterpart Ashwini Vaishnav jointly flagged off the service in a virtual format from Railway Board Conference Hall at Rail Bhaban, headquarter of Indian Railway ministry here.

Bangladesh High Commissioner to India Muhammad Imran, Chairman and CEO of Indian Railway Vinay Kumar Tripathi and Member (Operation) Sanjay Mahanti and ADG of Bangladesh Railway Sarder Shahadat Hossain, among others, were present at the flagging off ceremony.

Speaking on the occasion, the Bangladesh railway minister referred various development programmes undertaken by the present government under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for the increasing rail connectivity with the neighbouring countries to boost bilateral and multilateral relations.

He said Bangladesh was deprived of building strong rail connectivity during Pakistan era although there was a huge prospect of the sector.

He also said the sector was also faced huge devastation during Bangladesh War of Liberation in 1971.

The minister added that after Bangladesh's independence, Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman has taken massive steps for reconstruction of Bangladesh's railway sector to increase regional connectivity.

But after Bangabandhu's brutal assassination, the post 1975 government did not take any steps for the development of the very vital communication sector, he added.

In this connection, he mentioned that during 1971 liberation war the country had a total of 3000 KM railway tracks and now the tracks stand at 2500 while the total manpower came down to 25,000 from 80,000.

Sujan said not only that the 1991 government in Bangladesh sacked 10,000 railway officers and staffs through golden handshake.

"Now, we have taken massive steps to build up a strong railway system in Bangladesh. These included restoration of all rail communications between India and Bangladesh, which remained suspended since 1971 and upgrading all single gauge line to double gauge line," he added.

To this end, the minister wants to use India's experience for development of Bangladesh's railway sector for the benefit of the two nations.

He also proposed for operating "The Mitali Express" train five days in a week instead of existing two days.

Addressing the function, the Indian Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav said Mitali Express, will be yet another milestone in increasing this friendship, in strengthening this bond and in improving this relationship.

The development is accelerated in a very big way by the warm friendship between the two nations at all the levels, he said.

"Lots of collaborative efforts have been made between the two railways. It is a very opportune moment; a moment when we should take bigger steps to cement our relationship between the two nations," he added.

Earlier, 'The Mitali Express' was virtually inaugurated by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on March 27, 2021. But, it didn't go to operation due to Covid-19 pandemic.

However, experts said that the additional new passenger service-Mitali Express- will give a boost to tourism of both the countries since it connects Bangladesh with North Bengal as well as North Eastern region of India. This will also provide an access of Nepal to Bangladeshi citizens via India by rail.

Meanwhile, the other two Indo-Bangladesh passenger trains - Maitree Express and Bandhan Express, whose operations were disrupted due to Covid-19 restrictions, resumed their operations on May 29.

Maitree Express, which began service in 2008 is the first train to run between the two countries since the British partitioned India in 1947. Bandhan Express began service later that year.