Rail link may renew relationship

By Subir Bhaumik
BBC News, Dhaka

There were only 65 passengers on the first train from Calcutta to Dhaka

Bangladeshi cable operator Saidur Rehman Ripon cancelled his air tickets and took the first train to Dhaka from Calcutta on Monday.

"The train is so much more comfortable, and this was a historic journey I wanted to be a part of," he said.

Despite harassment by the Indian customs officials who asked him for duty on some Indian toys he bought for his children, Mr Ripon said he would always like to take the Dhaka-Calcutta Maitree (Friendship) Express during his future trips to India.

"But it is essential that immigration and particularly the customs cut down on handling ing time. Otherwise the passengers will be harassed," he added.

On Monday, Indian customs and immigration took nearly three hours to clear a mere 65 passengers on the inaugural run of the Friendship Express from Calcutta.

But the Dhaka-Calcutta train was full, with more than 400 passengers on board.

"There is clearly more enthusiasm in Bangladesh than in India about this train. But we will soon have more passengers from this side," said Indian Railway spokesman, Samir Goswami.

First service since 1965

When the two trains crossed at Darsana, Bangladesh's border railway station, dozens of Bangladeshi girls in red-and-white 'sarees' waved the train through.

This was the first train service between the 'two Bengals' in 42 years – the last train that arrived in Calcutta from the other side of the border was on 5th September 1965, during the India-Pakistan war.

The journey is long, but the train is comfortable and cheap

After that, the rail link between the 'two Bengals' was broken, and it took nearly 40 years to start it again.

"It is the Bengali New Year's day, and the inaugural journey of the Friendship Train was befitting the occasion," said Mohammed Matiur Rahman, chairman of Darsana Municipality.

Indeed it was, particularly for those nostalgia-stricken Bengalis who had migrated during or after the partition.

For Santosh Basak, 65, it was a trip down the memory lane to what he still believes is his 'motherland'.

"I left my ancestral Sirajganj at the peak of the religious riot at 1964, but I always wanted to come back, and this train gives me the opportunity to return to my people," he told the BBC.

'Overwhelmed'

There were many others like him. Ranjit Paul left his native Narsingdi near Dhaka in undivided Bengal as a three-year-old in 1946.

"I have no words, I am too overwhelmed by this train," he said, as  he checked into the Friendship Express.

The journey is long, 14 hours in all, from Calcutta to Dhaka. But the train is more comfortable than a bus, and certainly less expensive.

Although Calcutta is connected to Dhaka by bus - and of course by air - a cheaper direct train service is seen as a major step to promote people-to-people contact between India and Bangladesh, particularly between the 'two Bengals' .

"This is why we pushed for the rail link so hard, and we got it in the end," said Jaya Verma Sinha, Railway Advisor at the Indian High Commission in Dhaka.

"This is not merely a train service. This is a relationship," said Indian railway spokesman, Samir Goswami.