Railway Link Between India and Bangladesh Restored

In News

The commercial services on the Haldibari-Chilahati railway link between India and Bangladesh, which had been defunct for over 50 years, commenced recently with a goods train travelling to the neighbouring country.

About

• The distance between Haldibari Railway Station to the international border is 4.5 km and 7.5 km from Chilahati till the ‘zero point’.
• With the addition of this link, there will be five operational rail routes between the two countries.

Brief History of Rail Link

• The Haldibari-Chilahati rail link was operational till 1965. 
• However, the (Indo-Pak) war of 1965 effectively cut off all railway links between India and then East Pakistan.
• The construction of a new broad gauge line from the Haldibari station to the Bangladesh border was sanctioned by the Railway Board following the joint declaration at the Inter-governmental Railway meeting in May 2015.
• The restored rail link was inaugurated by the Prime Minister of India and his Bangladesh counterpart on December 17, 2020.
• However, no trains officially operated on the route after that due to the pandemic situation.

Significance

• Boost to Trade: The 10.5 km long rail link connecting Haldibari in West Bengal to Chilahati in Bangladesh is expected to boost trade between the two neighbours.
• Economic Development of Region: The rail link will enhance rail network access to the main ports, dry ports and land borders to support growth in regional trade and to encourage economic and social development of the region.
• People to People Contact: Common people and businessmen of both countries will be able to reap the benefit of both goods and passenger traffic. Thus, it will further strengthen people to people contact.
• Enhanced connectivity: It will provide an alternative to Siliguri Corridor (chicken neck) which will facilitate economic activities and more people to people interaction.

India-Bangladesh Bilateral Relations

• About:
  • India and Bangladesh share bonds of history, language, culture, and a multitude of other commonalities. 
  • The excellent bilateral ties reflect an all-encompassing partnership based on sovereignty, equality, trust, and understanding that goes far beyond a strategic partnership. 
  • The multi-dimensional cooperation between the two countries ranges from traditional sectors of tourism, health and education to frontier technologies of nuclear science, space, and information technology. 

• Economic and Commercial:
  • Bangladesh is India’s biggest trade partner in South Asia and India is the second biggest trade partner of Bangladesh. 
  • Bilateral trade between India and Bangladesh has grown steadily over the last decade and the exports of Bangladesh have tripled over the last decade to cross $1 bn in 2018-19. 
  • In FY 2019-20, India’s exports to Bangladesh were $8.2 bn and imports were $1.26 bn. 
  • Meetings of various institutional mechanisms to promote bilateral trade including that of Secretary-level meetings of Commerce and shipping ministries, LCS/ICP infrastructure and establishment of Indian Economic Zone etc. 
  • In order to promote cooperation on bilateral trade, an India-Bangladesh CEO’s Forum was launched in December 2020 to provide policy level inputs in various areas of trade and investment and also to facilitate exchanges among the business communities of both countries. 
  • The first meeting of the India-Bangladesh Textile Industry Forum was held in February 2020 to enhance linkages and collaboration in the textile sector. 

• Power Sector:
  • Cooperation in the power sector has become one of the hallmarks of India- Bangladesh relations. 
  • Bangladesh is currently importing 1160 MW of power from India. 
  • The Joint Working Group (JWG)/Joint Steering Committee (JSC) on power provides an institutional framework to promote bilateral cooperation in cross border trade of electricity. 

• Development Partnership:
  • Bangladesh is the biggest development partner of India today. 
  • India has extended 3 Lines of Credits (LOC) to Bangladesh in the last 8 years amounting to US$ 8 billion for the development of infrastructure in various sectors including roads, railways, shipping and ports. 
  • In addition to LOCs, the Government of India has also been providing grant assistance to Bangladesh for various infrastructure projects including the construction of the Akhaura-Agartala rail link, the dredging of inland waterways in Bangladesh and construction of the India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline. 
  • High Impact Community Development Projects (HICDPs) constitute an active pillar of India’s development assistance. 
  • The Government of India has funded 68 HICDPs including the construction of student hostels, academic buildings, skill development and training institutes, cultural centres, and orphanages etc in Bangladesh and another 16 HICDPs are being implemented. 

• Capacity Building and Human Resource Development:
  • Human resource development is a key component of India’s development cooperation efforts in Bangladesh through its several ongoing training programs and scholarships. 
  • The Government of India has been training 1800 Bangladesh Civil Service officials from 2019 at National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG), Mussoorie. 
  • Bangladeshi police officials are also being trained at various premier training institutes in India on various modern policing and new investigative techniques of this information age. 
  • Similarly, the Government of India has been extending training for 1500 Bangladeshi judicial officials since 2017 at National Judicial Academy, Bhopal and also at various State Judicial Academies in India. 

• Security and Border Management: 
  • 51st Director-General Level Talks (DGLT) between Border Security Force (BSF) and the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) were held in 2020 in Guwahati. 
  • In addition, border coordination conferences between Regional Commanders of BGB and the Frontier Inspectors General of BSF were also held regularly to discuss management and security of 4096.7 Km of the India-Bangladesh land border. 

• Defense Cooperation:
  • High-level exchanges in the year 2020 include the second edition of the India-Bangladesh CORPAT ‘Bangosagar’ exercise, the Regional Commanders meeting of Coast Guards and the third Annual Defense Dialogue. 
  • The Indian Army has gifted trained horses and dogs to the Bangladesh Army in November 2020.  
  • Muktijoddha related engagements and the annual visit of Muktijoddhas on the occasion of Victory Day were undertaken in 2020 and scholarships will be distributed to the heirs of Muktijoddhas during January-March 2021. 

• Connectivity:
  • Both the governments are undertaking various measures to restore the pre-1965 rail links and other connectivity links that existed between India and Bangladesh. 
  • The two Prime Ministers jointly inaugurated the newly restored railway link between Chilahati (Bangladesh) and Haldibari (India) on 17 December 2020. 
  • To enhance people to people contacts, the frequency of two passenger trains, i.e., Maitree Express and Bandhan Express was increased from 4 days a week to 5 days a week and from one day a week to two days a week respectively from February 2020.
  • Both countries also started using side-door container and parcel trains to maintain uninterrupted supply chains during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. 
  • The Government of India handed over 10 broad gauge diesel locomotives as part of grant assistance to Bangladesh Railways in a virtual event 
  • During the visit of PM Sheikh Hasina to New Delhi in October 2019, both the governments decided to commence Dhaka-Siliguri-Gangtok-Dhaka and Dhaka-Siliguri-Darjeeling-Dhaka bus service to enhance people to people contacts between both the countries and the trial run of Dhaka-Siliguri-Gangtok-Dhaka was also held in December 2019. 
  • Feni Bridge (Maitree Setu) connecting LCS Sub room (Tripura) and LCS Ramgarh (Bangladesh) was jointly inaugurated on a virtual platform by both the Prime Ministers in March 2021.

• Cultural Cooperation: 
  • The year 2021 will be historic in India-Bangladesh relations as both countries would be commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the Liberation War and the establishment of diplomatic relations between India and Bangladesh. 
  • Both countries are making efforts to jointly organize several activities to commemorate these two epochal events in India, Bangladesh and in other countries. 
  • The training programs include Yoga, Kathak, Manipuri dance, Hindi language, Hindustani classical music and the cultural programs of renowned artists of India and Bangladesh contribute to the promotion of people to people contacts. 

• Cooperation to tackle the challenge of COVID-19 Pandemic
  • Prime Ministers participated in the video conference of Leaders of SAARC countries in March 2020 to share assessments of the current situation relating to this pandemic, consider best practices, and identify cooperative measures to minimize and mitigate the spread of the disease. 
  • As part of bilateral assistance, the Government of India has extended three tranches of medical assistance to Bangladesh to assist in its efforts to fight against the COVID pandemic. 
  • The Government of India has also been conducting various online training modules to train the health professionals of Bangladesh on the treatment and care of COVID patients. 
  • In January 2021, the Government of India gifted 2 million Covishield (Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines) to Bangladesh to assist in its efforts to fight against the pandemic. 

• Recent Developments:
  • In 2020, the two Prime Ministers held a summit on a virtual platform and discussed all aspects of bilateral relations and exchanged views on regional and international issues. On this occasion, both countries signed seven bilateral instruments in various sectors including hydrocarbons, agriculture, trade, development projects, and conservation of heritage. 
  • The two Prime Ministers also jointly unveiled a postal stamp issued by the Government of India to commemorate the birth centenary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. 
  • On this occasion, two bilateral projects, the Beautification and City Development Project in Rajshahi City and the Construction of Khalishpur Collegiate Girls School in Khulna were also inaugurated.

Source: IE