Flood waters in Bangladesh bringing misery to millions and suspending a key border route with India, officials said Thursday. Bus services between Dhaka and Calcutta, the capital of the flood-hit Indian West Bengal state, were suspended on Wednesday after floodwaters from northern districts inundated a highway linking the busy Benapole-Bongoan border port, a transport official in Dhaka said. Immigration and customs offices and a bridge at Benapole's border post in southwestern Bangladesh were either knee-deep in water or remained inaccessible, local officials were quoted as saying by the Independent newspaper.
Benapole, some 185 kilometers (115 miles) from Dhaka, and neighbouring Satkhira were the latest areas to hit by the floods, which have affected nearly two million people and left many homeless. Flood waters had forced Bangladeshi troops to withdraw from one border check-post and planning to temporarily abandon five more, the Independent, quoting police officials in Jessore, said.
Bureau Report