Bangladesh-India train services resume after two years

Train services between Bangladesh and India resumed on Sunday after over a two-year gap due to the Covid-19 pandemic, while the passenger turnout was low.
Sources said the Maitree Express, which operates on Dhaka-Kolkata route, left Dhaka Cantonment Station at 8:15am with only 170 passengers, while the Bandhan Express arrived in Khulna at around 12:30pm from India's Kolkata with only 48 passengers.
They said both the trains had the capacity of 456 passengers each.
Bangladesh Railway (BR) Director General Dhirendra Nath Mazumder was present at the Cantonment Station along with high officials to see off the passengers in the morning.
The train services had remained suspended since March 15, 2020 to contain the spread of coronavirus infection. Though the country's Covid situation had improved several times during the last two years, the train services could not be resumed as the rate of infection in India was high.
When asked about poor turnout of passengers, an official said due to the long suspension of the train services, many people were not aware of the resumption.
"Travelling from one country to another needs preparations and formalities which cannot be done within a short period of time," he told the FE, preferring not to be named.
The BR announced the resumption of the Indo-Bangla train service on May 21 after getting a green signal from the Indian side and started ticket issuance on May 25.
BR officials said they were expecting that the sale of tickets would get its original momentum within two or three weeks.
The Maitree Express started its operations in 2008 while the Bandhan Express in 2017. On March 26, 2021, the two governments announced the launch of a third passenger train service named Mitali Express.
Officials said the new service will start from India's Jalpaiguri on June 1 and leave Dhaka on June 2.

smunima@yahoo.com