Fulfilling a commitment made to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina during her visit here in October 2019, India on Tuesday handed over 20 broad gauge (BG) locomotives to Bangladesh.
The handing over ceremony was attended by Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and his Bangladeshi counterpart Md Nurul Islam Sujan virtually.
"Indian Railways are also playing a vital role in improving and strengthening rail connectivity across the border and improving trade between the two countries," Vaishnaw said while addressing the event.
"As of now, five BG connectivities are operational, namely Geda-Darsana, Benapol-Petrapol, Singhabad-Rohanpur, Radhikapur-Birol and Haldibari-Chilahati. Work on two more cross-border rail connectivities, Akhaura-Agartala and Mahishasan-Shahbazpur, are progressing well and are likely to be completed and commissioned shortly," he said.
"Previously, in June 2020, the Indian government provided 10 locomotives to Bangladesh as grant. We express our heartfelt gratitude to India for providing broad gauge locomotives," Sujan said.
In keeping with the requirements of Bangladesh Railway, the locomotives have been suitably modified. These locomotives will help to handle the increasing volume of passenger and freight train operations in the country.
To enhance people-to-people contact, there are three pairs of passenger trains running between India and Bangladesh at present – the Kolkata-Dhaka Maitree Express, Kolkata-Khulna Bandhan Express and the New Jalpaiguri-Dhaka Mitali Express.
Trade between the two countries via rail has seen consistent growth with the interchange of close to 100 cargo trains per month. Approximately 2.66 MT of cargo was sent to Bangladesh in the last financial year, the ministry said.
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