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Agartala-Dhaka bus link soon

THE long-awaited Agartala-Dhaka bus service is set for a trial run, with the Bangladesh Government giving the clearance. If everything proceeds on schedule, as reports from Agartala suggest, the service will be inaugurated shortly. After Delhi-Lahore and Kolkata-Dhaka, Agartala-Dhaka will be the third international bus service.

The inaugural run, carrying a State-level delegation and Central Ministers, will be from the Tripura Road Transport Corporation's headquarters at Krishnanagar in Agartala. A Bangladeshi delegation, likewise, will come to Tripura the next day. The propose d 144-km route, via Agartala-Akhaura-Dargah-Brahmanbaria-Narasingdih-Narayanganj-Dhaka, is to be covered in about six hours. The crossing of the mighty Meghna river will be between Bhairabi and Anshuganj.

The people of Tripura have for long been demanding a bus service to Dhaka as it will provide them with a new route to Kolkata and other parts of the country. It will also open up opportunities for tourism and the industrial development of the land-locked State. However, the introduction of the transit visa through Bangladesh may take some time as it is still under consideration.

As there has been no amendment to the Consular Rules, 1971, there will be no delay in completion of formalities and a memorandum of understanding will be signed shortly, it is felt. But for now, the general visitors will be issued only a single-entry vis a.

Baggage Rules

being tightened

Fines and penalties imposed in adjudication proceedings generally do not deter the unscrupulous. Import of goods in commercial quantities is simply not permissible under the Baggage Rules, and yet deterrent action is not taken always against the habitual offenders. The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), taking serious note of the lack of strict monitoring by supervisory officers at international airports over import of goods in commercial quantity as baggage, has now decided to tighten the Bagg age Rules procedure for acceptance of oral declaration of passengers.

Instructions have now been issued to strictly follow the adjudication manual, and any lapse in this regard is going to be seriously viewed by the department, sources point out. In the case of `Red Channel' passengers, the officers have now been instructe d to ensure that every passenger fills up a Disembarkation Card, clearly mentioning therein the quantity and value of goods that he has brought, and hand over the Customs portion of the card to the officer on duty at the Red Channel.

Supervisory officers are now being instructed to ensure that the total material in excess of duty-free allowance imported by the passenger is declared/charged to duty.

For passengers walking through the Green Channel, the existing practice of collecting Disembarkation Card containing the written declaration of the passenger about his baggage, will continue. The commissioner/additional commissioner in charge of the airp ort, says CBEC, shall be responsible for ensuring strict compliance of the aforesaid instructions. -- Our Bureau