Commercial providers on the Haldibari-Chilahati railway hyperlink between India and Bangladesh, which was closed for greater than 50 years, started on Sunday with a items prepare touring to the neighboring nation.
The restored rail hyperlink was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina on December 17, 2020.
However, no trains formally ran on the route after that because of the pandemic scenario.
A items prepare consisting of 58 wagons laden with stone chips left Alipurduar’s Dimdima station at 10.30 am on Sunday. Its vacation spot is Chilhati through Haldibari in Bangladesh.
“The first commercial service between Haldibari and Chilahati will be held on Sunday,” a Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) spokesperson stated on Saturday.
The distance from Haldibari Railway Station to the International Border is 4.5 km and seven.5 km from Chilahati to ‘Zero Point’.
After crossing Haldibari station, the prepare reached the immigration examine put up situated at Khalpara-Dangapara.
Kishore Marodia, President, North Bengal Chamber of Commerce, who was current on the event, stated that the graduation of economic service on the rail hyperlink will assist in financial growth within the districts of North Bengal and in the complete state.
“The businessmen of the area are very happy,” he stated.
The building of a brand new broad gauge line from Haldibari station to Bangladesh border was accepted by the Railway Board following a joint announcement on the Inter-Governmental Railway assembly in May 2015.
“The Haldibari-Chilahati rail hyperlink was operational until 1965. However, the 1965 (Indo-Pak) battle successfully reduce off all railway hyperlinks between India and erstwhile East Pakistan, the Ministry of Railways stated in a press release in December 2020.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
