Agartala: India and Bangladesh are working out modalities for launching a direct bus service from Tripura capital Agartala to West Bengal capital Kolkata via Dhaka.
The announcement was made by AK Upadhyaym, the secretary, Ministry of Surface Transport and Highways.
“Now, we are looking at direct service between Agartala and Kolkata, through Dhaka. Now the discussion is in progress, we have exchanged documents with them and at the diplomatic level discussions are going on,” said Upadhyaym.
This will be the first direct bus service from Agartala to Kolkata. It will very beneficial for the people as it will cost less and will reduce travel time to one day.
The new service will reduce the distance between Kolkata and Agartala from 1800 km to just 350 kms.
Currently, there are bus services from Agartala to Dhaka and Dhaka to Kolkata twice a week.
“People from Tripura often travel to Kolkata for different works like treatment, higher education, tour and other purposes. If they travel via Bangladesh it will save time and money. Bangladesh will also earn revenue and it will also be beneficial for the transport business,” said Sujit Chakraborty, a resident.
Both India and Bangladesh have signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen connectivity to promote cross border trade.
They are in the process of setting up a railway line between Agartala and Akhaura and directly up to Chittagong, which will reduce the transit time for the cargos.
ANI
First Published: Monday, October 22, 2012, 13:51