KOLKATA: After two years, the 'Epar Bangla-Opar Bangla' cross-border passenger train movement resumed on Sunday as the Bandhan Express rolled out of Kolkata station at 7.10am for Khulna. On the same day, Bandhan Express from Khulna and Maitree Express from Dhaka also reached the city. On Monday morning, Maitree Express will leave for Dhaka.
Due to the pandemic, the train service across the India-Bangladesh border were discontinued. Earlier during the peak seasons, both the trains had an occupancy of over 400 passengers.
On Sunday, the Khulna-bound Bandhan Express - which covers 172km in five hours and 20 minutes with three stops at Petrapole, Benapole and Jessore - had 19 passengers. Similarly, the Maitree Express that left Dhaka in the morning had 165 passengers. Covering 400km in around nine hours, the train stopped at Ishwardi, Darshana and Gede stations.
Bandhan Express is a biweekly train running on Sundays and Thursdays, a railway official said. He added Maitree Express travels to Dhaka from Kolkata on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday while it returns from Dhaka on Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Both the trains leave Kolkata station at 7.10am. However, the demand for the tickets is yet to pick up, an official said, though normally both the trains have eight compartments with four air-conditioned chair cars and four executive class compartments. He hopes that the number of passengers will increase within a fortnight once the trains start running regularly. According to the official, a new train Mitali Express, connecting New Jalpaiguri with Dhaka, will be flagged off on June 1.
An official said the cross-border trains help the Bangladesh traders and patients a lot.However, the Bengal officials said both the trains are escorted inside the Indian border by BSF instead of RPF and this system was cleared by the Union home ministry before the pandemic. They felt that though the jurisdiction of BSF has been increased to 50km from the earlier 15km, Kolkata station is over 100km away from the border and there is no point in replacing the RPF with BSF.
Adhir Sharma DG, railways, confirmed the norm that the two trains from Kolkata station are escorted by BSF. Sharma said that the Mitali Express was also supposed to be escorted by BSF, but due to a recent communication from Delhi, RPF will escort it to the border, instead of BSF.
(Inputs from Pinak Priya Bhattacharya)
