Hasina, Modi set to re-launch Chilahati-Haldibari rail route after 55 years
After a hiatus of 55 years, the rail link between Chilahati in Bangladesh and Haldibari in West Bengal state of India is all set to reopen on December 17 when prime ministers of the two countries hold a virtual bilateral summit and inaugurate the key connectivity between India and Bangladesh.
An official of India's Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) said the railway line from Haldibari in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal to Chilahati in northern Bangladesh had been defunct after the rail links between India and the then East Pakistan had snapped during the 1965 war, reports our New Delhi correspondent.
"Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate Haldibari-Chilahati rail route on December 17," NFR Chief Public Relations Officer Subhanan Chanda said.
A goods train will run from Chilahati to Haldibari, which is under the Katihar division of the NRF, to mark the opening of the route, he said.
Bangladesh High Commissioner to India Mohammad Imran had recently undertaken a visit to both Haldibari and Chilahati to take a first-hand assessment of the route and the preparations for the inauguration of the rail route.
The Indian Ministry of External Affairs on Tuesday informed the Indian railway authorities of the decision to reopen the rail route, said Katihar Divisional Railway Manager Ravinder Kumar Verma.
The distance between Haldibari Railway Station till the international border is 4.5 kilometres while that from Chilahati in Bangladesh till the zero point is around 7.5 kilometres, sources in the NFR said.
Both Haldibari and Chilahati stations were on the old broad gauge railway route between Siliguri and Kolkata that went through areas in present-day Bangladesh.
When passenger train service begins on this route, people will be able to travel to Kolkata from Jalpaiguri, which is near Siliguri, in seven hours, five hours less than what it takes now, Ravinder Kumar said after visiting Haldibari station on Wednesday.