Photo: The Hindu
Eight-year-old Nidhal who had been diagnosed with the terminal disease cancer had come to the city of Kolkata for treatment far from Bangladesh. However when it was time for him to return back, he was unable to do the same since it was difficult to find an air ticket, resulting him into finding an alternative- the Kolkata-Dhaka-Agartala bus route, on Monday.
“At Rs.1,400 per person till Dhaka, I find the fare to be very reasonable,” Nizamuddim, Nidhal’s father, told in his statement to the media. On Monday, when the first commercial bus service (Kolkata-Dhaka-Agartala) took off from Karunamayee Stand in Salt Lake, it had 37 passengers, including Nidhal and his parents. The service was flagged of at Dhaka during the Prime Minister’s recent official trip. Of the 37, 32 are headed for Dhaka and the remaining five for Tripura. Those travelling to Dhaka are mostly medical tourists.
Even those travelling to Agartala claim that the bus service will boost connectivity. “The number of flights between Kolkata and Agartala has been reduced to half. And the bus service through Bangladesh provides us better connectivity,” Amit Kumar Banik, who was travelling to Agartala, stated.
Earlier it took nearly three days to travel from Kolkata to Agartala by road. Now, the travel time has come down to 18-odd hours. While the fare till Dhaka is Rs. 1,400 (per person), a full trip i.e. Kolkata to Agartala via Dhaka costs Rs. 1,700 (per person).
The service was officially launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bangladeshi counterpart, Shiekh Hasina, in the presence of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, during their visit to Bangladesh earlier this month. Run and operated by the West Bengal Surface Transport Corporation (WBSTC), it takes 12 hours to reach Dhaka and another six more to reach Agartala.
According to bus driver Abhijit Bera, travel documents of passengers (including visa and passport) are checked at two places — the Benapole-Petrapole border and at Akhuara near the Tripura side of the Indian-Bangladeshi border.
The bus service is slated to be available from Kolkata thrice a week — Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays — and from Agartala on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
Tags: Dhaka- Agartala bus fare Dhaka- Agartala bus service
