MESSAGE BOARD
NEWSLINKS
US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTION 99
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

India, Bangladesh to resume goods train service

India and Bangladesh will sign an agreement here on Tuesday for resumption of goods train service between Benapole in Bangladesh and Petrapole in India after 26 years, railway officials said on Monday.

"All preparations are complete to sign the agreement to restore rail link between India and Bangladesh for goods traffic," Mostafa Jamil, an official of the Bangladesh railway said.

A three-member team of officials of the Indian Railway Board, now in Dhaka, are giving final shape to the agreement.

The movement of trains and wagons on the Jessore-Benapole-Bongaon-Calcutta route was operational till the Indo-Pakistan war in 1965. The service was re-introduced after Bangladesh got independence in 1972.

But it was discontinued again in 1974 due to inadequate traffic volume.

Jamil said the Bangladesh railway had completed laying of tracks on the 1.6 km route from Benapole station yard to the Zero Point on the Indo-Bangla border at Benapole. The Indian side had completed the work of laying tracks on the six-km route from Zero Point to Petrapole.

Tracks on the remaining 25 yards stretch in no-man's land would be laid immediately after the agreement was signed.

PTI

Tell us what you think of this report