As part of efforts to boost trade and improve rail communication, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, with her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi inaugurated a ground breaking service. They jointly inaugurated the end-to-end Immigration and Customs of Maitree Express, flagging off Bandhan Express (Khulna-Kolkata) and launching of train communication on the newly-built Second Bhairab and Second Titas Railway bridges through video conference. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also joined the inauguration programme.
Authorities officially launched end to end customs and immigration services for the passengers of Maitree Express to make rail journey between Dhaka to Kolkata and return more comfortable and cutting down the duration of the trip. The Maitree Express train runs between Dhaka-Kolkata six days a week now with Thursday as weekly holiday. According to railways authorities, all the 456 seats were sold out on the first day of launching of the end to end customs and immigration service.
With the launching of this service, sufferings of the passengers will go down significantly. All the customs and immigration services will be completed at the starting and ending points of the journey. The duration of the journey will be reduced by two hours also.
However, in this conference both PM stressed upon the importance of further strengthening relationship among neighbouring countries in order to ensure pro-growth economy and peace in the region.
Bangladesh always wants to cooperate with India and other neighbouring countries for creating a 'peace area' in South Asia where all can live together as good neighbours and pursue constructive policies for the benefit of all. Continuation of good relationship is very much essential for the development in this part of the world. With the inaugurations of these services a new door of relationship has been opened up between the two countries.
Today Bangladesh-India relations are in fact setting new high standards of bilateral cooperation in the region and beyond. These services would give a boost to cultural exchanges and tourism between two countries. Connectivity is one of the main pillars of today's cooperation. Two countries are not only connected through rail, road, inland water and air, but also connected through internet bandwidth, coastal routes, power grid etc. We should not stop here, but should go forward in order to have a better future for the people. Communication always reduces risk and provides space for peace, collaboration and development.
