Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Dinesh Trivedi has met Bangladesh’s Minister for Road Transport and Bridges, Shipping and Railways, Shaikh Rabiul Alam, with both sides indicating that fixing a date for restarting passenger train services between the two countries remains high on the agenda.
I was Railway Minister, and Railway Minister means working for the common people. We have a train in India known as the Garib Rath. The common man needs the railways. In between, for whatever reason, railway services were shut. But freight services did not stop. I have heard that freight has doubled. That is a very good thing. It means trade is going on. How can we take trade forward? Roads, railways, and Water. I think very soon we will get some very good news. I read lots of news in the newspapers about the Maitree Express. I think we are expecting good news in that direction soon. It will happen very soon. The effort is to make it happen at the earliest. Trivedi also spoke about efforts to shorten travel time on the route. How can we reduce it by three hours? Whether we can take it via the Padma Bridge, these are technical discussions. But the good news is that soon we will be able to mention a fixed date. There is a meeting going on, and that meeting is on this only,” he added. They underscored the importance of strengthening connectivity between India and Bangladesh as a key enabler of economic engagement and closer people-to-people ties. The remarks come as a two-day meeting of the Inter-Governmental Railway Meeting (IGRM) between India and Bangladesh got underway in Dhaka. The Inter-Governmental Railway Meeting is an annual bilateral forum where railway authorities and ministry representatives from both countries meet to discuss and decide on cross-border train operations, rail infrastructure projects and freight transit.
So that is our responsibility.
Speaking on the matter, Trivedi said, “Common people want roads and railways. “Like the minister said, we are looking at how a route is taking six to seven hours. The Indian High Commission, in a statement on social media platform X, said, “Both sides discussed a range of topics of mutual interest pertaining to railways, shipping, connectivity and bilateral development projects.
The Mitali Express is a bi-weekly international express train connecting New Jalpaiguri in West Bengal, India, and Dhaka Cantonment in Bangladesh. It was the last international train service to be inaugurated between the two countries, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina jointly flagging off the service in 2021. The train covers a distance of nearly 600 km in around 11 hours and crosses into Bangladesh via the Haldibari-Chilahati border.
Trivedi himself has previously held the railways portfolio as a minister in the Government of India and is well versed in the functioning of the railways.
