Indian govt plans Guwahati-Dhaka bus service

NEW DELHI, Dec 6 (BSS): Indian government plans to introduce regular passenger bus services to Dhaka from Guwahati in Assam via Shillong in Meghalaya.

For this purpose a joint technical survey and trial run will be arranged on December 10-11 from Guwahati to Dhaka to study and finalise the routes.

The trial run and route survey will be carried out jointly by delegations from India and Bangladesh by way of a dry run of the service to assess route conditions and other technical parameters.

The trial run will conclude at Dhaka on December and delegation is expected to submit the report on the details and feasibility of the regular bus services to the authorities.

This will be in addition to two passenger bus services to Dhaka already operating from Kolkata in West Bengal and Agartala in Tripura.

Negotiations with Bangladesh for starting the bus services from Guwahati and Shillong have been underway for the past several months and have gathered momentum.

The proposed bus service covering approximately 500 kilometres starting from Guwahati will be taking the Shillong-Dawki (Meghalaya) and Tamabil -Sylhet-Dhaka (Bangladesh) route.

The official Indian delegation for the trial run will be led by Shri W Blah, superintending engineer of ministry of road transport and highways.

The delegation will also have representatives from the ministries of finance, home affairs and external affairs apart from the state governments of Assam and Meghalaya.

The trial run is scheduled to begin at 9am on December 10 from Guwahati.

The Bangladesh delegation consisting of seven senior officials for the trial run will reach Guwahati on December 9 and proceed to Dhaka on December 10 by bus along with the Indian delegation.