Bangladesh-India bus services resumes on 4 routes

The passenger bus services between Bangladesh and India resumed with the flagging off of the bus from Dhaka to Kolkata on Friday morning. The flagging off marked the opening of the bus services through the Akhaura-Agartala and Benapole-Haridaspur Integrated Check Posts (ICPs) between the two countries. According to Tazul Islam, chairman of Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC), informed before the pandemic, buses were operated on five cross-border routes: Dhaka-Kolkata-Dhaka, Dhaka-Agartala-Dhaka, Dhaka-Sylhet-Shillong-Guwahati-Dhaka, Agartala-Dhaka-Kolkata-Agartala, and Dhaka-Khulna-Kolkata-Dhaka. However, this time, only four routes were chosen to resume from Friday. He added the discussion over the resumption of the fifth route possibly-- Dhaka-Sylhet-Shillong-Guwahati-Dhaka route-- is also going on. The High Commission has termed the resumption of bus services as a major step forward in enhancing affordable, people-centric connectivity.

cross-border bus service on Agartala-Dhaka-Kolkata-Agartala flagged off from Agartala today-will help boost tourism & people-to-people ties. The cross-border bus services are a popular means of travel in & pic.twitter.com/r3fbOGLM1W

— India in Bangladesh (@ihcdhaka) June 10, 2022

The opening of the bus-services comes less than two weeks after the passenger train service between the two countries were started on May 29 with the flagging off of the Maitree Express and Bandhan Express train between Dhaka-Kolkata and Kolkata-Khulna respectively. A new biweekly train named Mitali Express between New Jalpaiguri and Dhaka was also flagged off by the Railway Ministers of India and Bangladesh on  June 1.