People waiting for Bangladesh-India rail route to reopen

The people of both Bangladesh and India are concerned about when the reopening of railway connection again. India-Bangladesh rail services has been suspended since the quota reform movement. Import and export has been affected. India-Bangladesh rail service faced a huge loss during Covid pandemic.

Later, however, when the situation gradually normalized, the communication system of the two countries returned to full flow. Later due to the political turmoil in Bangladesh, the rail communication between the two countries is facing problems again. Rail services between India and Bangladesh have been completely suspended for the past one month.

Because of this, the import and export of goods between the two countries has been severely affected. In this situation, the passengers are also facing various issues.

Experts believe that the suspension of rail services between the two neighboring countries is having a major impact on economic sectors of India and Bangladesh. Almost half of the total goods imported from India to Bangladesh are transported by rail.

Most of them are through the Benapole border. Railways transport many important commodities like chemicals, fertilizers, cement and agricultural products. Experts fear that there may be a shortage of these products in Bangladesh due to the suspension of rail services and this may affect the country's economy. Moreover, many people from Bangladesh visits India for medical purposes.

Many Bangladeshi tourists travels to various places in India including Kolkata and Darjeeling. But due to the ongoing situation they are facing a lot of issues. Many passengers had booked tickets in advance, which now had to be cancelled. Three international passenger trains operate through the land ports of Benapole and Chilahati in Bangladesh. Among them, Maitree and Bandhan Express go via Benapole and Mithali Express via Chilahati route. Due to the closure of these three trains, smooth movement of passengers is being disrupted, which has created a chaos among the neighboring countries. However, it is not yet known how long these trains will remain canceled and when they will resume.

After the fall of Sheikh Hasina and her government on August 5, an interim government was formed in Bangladesh with Muhammad Yunus as the chief adviser. Bangladesh is slowly returning to its normal state after a long period of unrest. Eastern Railway's Chief Public Relations Officer Kaushik Mitra in a statement to Indian media outlet Ei Samay said that ‘we are ready’. Once Bangladesh gives the green signal, train movement between the two countries will start again, he added. However, when asked about this, Director General of Bangladesh Railways, Sardar Shahadat Ali, told the Indian media outlet Zee Media, "So far no permission has been given by India's External Affairs to run the train."

According to Indian Railways, the rake of Mithali Express arriving from India to Bangladesh is kept at Dhaka Railway Station. Apart from this, the other Indian goods wagons which came to Bangladesh, after clearing the goods, are also in Bangladesh. On the other hand, wagons loaded with goods of importers are stuck at the Indian border. There is a concern that the raw materials contained in it have already decomposed.

However, according to sources, the administrative officials of the two countries will soon discuss to launch of these trains. Now the people of both sides are counting days in hope that the rail communication between the two countries will resume soon.