The Hindu Business Line : Eastern Rly gears up for Dhaka service

Kolkata March 27 Following the Railway Ministry's decision to run passenger trains from Sealdah/Kolkata Terminal (Chitpore) to Joydebpur/Dhaka in Bangladesh, the Eastern Railway is gearing up to launch the service. Currently, freight trains run between the two countries via Gede-Darshana and Petrapole-Benapole.

Briefing newspersons here on Tuesday on Eastern Railway's performance during the current fiscal up to February 2007, Mr N.K. Goel, General Manager, said the daytime, 10-coach train service would run daily once from Gede on the Indian side to Joydebpur, and then on to Dhaka, a distance of 330 km.

The running time would be around 8 hours, and customs/immigration checks on both sides would add to the travel time.

Stating that work on a double line up to Joydebpur had been completed, he said the travel length on the Indian side would be 170 km. He said a senior ER team had completed preliminary inspection at Gede for extending customs/immigration facilities, widening of platforms and so on. There will be one daily service from both sides.

Clearances awaited

Mr Goel said teams from both the Indian Railways and the Bangladesh Railways would soon hold meetings to finalise the rail route, timings, fare structure, composition and so on.

There would be 10 stations en route and, for security reasons, there will be no scheduled stops in between except for river crossings and other cross-border checking formalities. Many official clearances are still awaited before the trains can begin their journey on both sides.

A key issue would be segregation of passengers, as customs and non-customs, from the security point of view.

While declining to specify the date on which the service would be started, as this depended on the plan of action to be announced by the Ministry, Mr Goel said the service would take another 2-3 months to start. He said that all passenger amenities would be developed gradually, in phases, once the train service is started.

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