Dhaka-Guwahati-Shillong bus trials next month

A bus service connecting Dhaka with Guwahati of Assam and Shillong of Meghalaya will start next month, says Bangladesh's High Commissioner to India Tariq A Karim. The Dhaka-Guwahati-Shillong bus service will be run for an indefinite period on trial basis, starting in October, the Bangladesh envoy said. He was attending as special guest at a meeting organised by Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FICCI) in the Assamese capital on Wednesday. Bus may run permanently in this route if the bus service turns profitable during the trial period. He said the bus service connecting Bangladesh’s capital with the two Indian north-eastern cities should generate greater interest in Bangladesh about India's northeast. Dipankar Barua, chairman of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industries' (FICCI) tourism committee, who was present at the meeting, said young Bangladeshis head to far-off Kenya for a rhino safari when it is available across the border in Assam’s Kaziranga, home to more than 2,000 one-horned Indian rhinos. ‘At the same time people from Bangladesh prefer to travel to Kolkata for tourism, health services or any other important work, even though Guwahati has equally good hospitals,’ he added, according to a news agency.