Trial run today

The direct bus service between Dhaka and Guwahati, expected to start next month, will promote tourism right away and business in future.

For a trial run, a bus with officials of different ministries will leave for Guwahati today through Tamabil of Sylhet and then through Shillong of Meghalaya to reach Guwahati in Assam. Officials will check the overall infrastructure on the over 550km route.

Obaidul Quader, road transport and bridges minster, and Pankaj Saran, Indian high commissioner in Bangladesh, are expected to launch the trial service this afternoon.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi will inaugurate the third bus service between the two countries during Modi's visit to Dhaka early next month, Obaidul Quader told The Daily Star yesterday.

In December last year, a joint survey found some roads on both sides of the borders in poor condition and immigration and customs facilities inadequate. Those are improving now.

FBCCI President Kazi Akram Uddin Ahmed sees this direct bus service as an enormous opportunity for businesses.

"Connectivity or man-to-man contact always has a direct impact on trade and commerce. So, the direct communications between Dhaka and Guwahati will open up a new window for Bangladesh and the northeast part of India," he told this newspaper yesterday.

The route falls in one of the Asian highway routes that run through Benapole, Jessore, Kanchpur, Dhaka, Sylhet and Tamabil.

The Asian highway  is a network of 1,41,000km of standard roadways crisscrossing Asian countries and linking them with Europe was conceived in 1959 with an aim to promote development of international road transport in the continent.

A good number of Bangladeshis visit Shillong and Guwahati regularly. There are also people who are relatives living across the borders and they visit each other often. But they suffer a lot as there is no direct bus service.

Currently, the journey on the route is time-consuming as travellers have to change transports at different points before reaching their destinations.

"The direct bus service will reduce the travel time by three to five hours," said BRTC manager at Kamalapur Bus Depot Nayeb Ali.

"Initially, there may be fewer passengers but we hope to get sufficient passengers on this route because many people from Bangladesh visit Shillong," he added.

This will be the fourth cross-border transport service between the two countries.

Of the existing ones, both the bus and train services between Dhaka and Kolkata are getting expected passengers but the Dhaka-Agartala service is not, officials said.

On this route that opened in 2003 the BRTC operates one or two trips per month for a lack of passengers, said Nayeb Ali.

The Dhaka-Kolkata bus service launched in 1999, on the other hand, is popular among Bangladeshis who travel to Kolkata for medical, tourism and other purposes through this route. 

Four 40-seat buses run on this route every day, except on Sundays. Of them, two operate from Bangladesh and two from India, said Almas Ali, deputy general manager (operations) of BRTC.

Private bus operator Shyamoli Paribahan is the operation partner of BRTC that has set Tk 3,400 for a round trip through Dhaka-Kolkata route.  

Bangladesh Railway has been operating Moitree Express on Dhaka-Kolkata route since April 2008. Two trains -- one from Bangladesh and one from India -- operate on the route six days a week.

"The service has drawn good response from passengers. More than 90 percent seats are filled up in every trip," said an assistant director of the railway.

The railway has a plan to introduce train services from Khulna to Kolkata via Dhaka, he added.