Will restore pre-1965 rail links with India: Bangladesh

Agartala, September 22: Bangladesh will restore the pre-1965 railway connectivity with India that was disrupted by the India-Pakistan war, Bangladesh Industry Minister Amir Hossain Amu said on Thursday.
“The Bangladesh government would like to bring substantive changes in terms of connectivity with India. We would restore the pre-1965 railway links on priority basis,” he said while addressing the third ‘North East Connectivity Summit’ in Agartala.
He said: “Air connectivity between Guwahati and Dhaka and Shillong and Agartala via Dhaka could be explored after examining the commercial viability.”
The visiting minister said Bangladesh, China, India and Myanmar, known as BCIM region, is one of the richest in the world in terms of resources.
“The region, with a population of 440 million, covers nine per cent of the world’s total area and 7.3 per cent of the global gross domestic product.”
Amu said over the past seven years, Bangladesh and India have witnessed tremendous progress in almost all areas, including security, connectivity, power, trade and commerce.
“To boost trade and commerce between Bangladesh and India’s north-east region, we are improving trade infrastructure, immigration, customs facilities, developing land ports. Bangladesh is north-east India’s natural business partner,” the minister added.
India’s External Affairs Ministry’s Joint Secretary Partha Satpathy said India’s ‘Act East Policy’ has been extremely successful in terms of diplomacy for development, regional security, energy security, political aspects and other vital issues.
“Several connectivity-related projects are now underway to connect north-east India with south-east Asian countries. India is playing a vital role in important regional bodies like the South-east Asian Nations or Asean and BIMSTEC to provide greater global exposure to the regional grouping,” Satpathy said.
Headquartered in Dhaka, BIMSTEC includes India, Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Myanmar for multi-sectoral technical and economic cooperation.
Tripura Commerce and Industry Minister Tapan Chakraborty said the northeast with four per cent of India’s population and eight per cent geographical area had vast untapped resources.