On board the Friendship Express

Mark Dummett
Calcutta

On the morning of the Bengali New Year, cameraman Abdullah Al-Muyid and I boarded the Friendship or Maitree Express in Dhaka - the first passenger train between India and Bangladesh in over 40 years.

The start of the journey

It seems extraordinary that Bangladeshis and Indians have had to wait so long for this train. The two countries have officially been friends for years, and it has been possible for some time to take a bus, or a plane between the two. There was a genuine joy that sense has at last prevailed.

So there was a festive atmosphere as the passengers arrived at the station to board the train, which had been decorated with strings of flowers.

On board the train

Thousands of Bangladeshis travel each year to India - for business or work, to receive medical treatment, for holidays, or to see relatives. For centuries, Bangladesh and the neighbouring Indian state of West Bengal, made up a united Bengal, with Calcutta as its main city.

The people on the two sides still speak the same language, and share a culture, but since the Partition of India along religious lines in 1947, the two have forged separate identities.

Meeting the passengers

Dozens of armed policemen, who looked as if they were expecting a riot, met the train as it pulled into the first station in India.

Disagreements over the security arrangements led to a decade-long delay in the re-opening of the rail service. Bangladesh has now promised India to construct a wire cage around the track to stop anyone from trying to sneak over the border.

India has been building a fence around Bangladesh, it says, to block illegal immigrants and Islamic extremists.

The end of the journey

But the mood of celebration continued throughout the 14-hour journey. It would have been much shorter, but for the lengthy formalities on both sides of the border.

Another Maitree, or Friendship, Express travelled in the opposite direction but when we passed it, it seemed to be mostly full of journalists.

The Bangladeshi train was also carrying reporters, but most of the passengers were “genuine”, and looking forward to their stay in Calcutta.