Agartala to Kolkata by bus via Bangladesh

The first bus service to connect two Indian cities via a second country was formally inaugurated yesterday.

Shyamali, a Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) bus left the international bus terminus in Agartala yesterday morning for Kolkata.

The BRTC launched the service after the Bangla-desh Government decided to issue double entry visa to Indian travellers.

Chief Minister Manik Sarkar who inaugurated the service described the event as a "historic one in promotion of bilateral co-operation between India and Bangladesh".

He said the positive attitude shown by the two countries would go a long way in further improving trade and commerce between the two neighbours.

He was optimist that the newly improved ties would be specially beneficial for Bangladesh and the northeastern states of India.

Though the service would connect two Indian cities the bus would not go directly to Kolkata. The passengers would have to change bus at Dhaka, the Bangladesh capital.

Ramesh Chandra Ghosh, managing director of the Shyamali Paribahan Private Limited, a franchise of the BRTC, said presently they are arranging a connecting bus from Dhaka and assured a direct bus within next few months.

Agartala-Kolkata bus service was a long pending demand of the northeast Indian states especially of landlocked Tripura that is fully dependent on costly air travel to reach Kolkata, the nearest Indian metropolitan city.