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Published on April 9, 2017
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee jointly flagged off the train service via video-conferencing from New Delhi.
Regular services between the Kolkata station and Khulna will start in July, the Press Trust of India reported, citing railway officials.
The Bangladesh-India rail corridor through Petrapole reopened in 2001 for goods trains.
Bangladesh Railways Minister Mazibul Hoque and other senior government functionaries were present at the Benapole Railway Station on Saturday.
The Khulna-Kolkata train, Maitree Express-2, will be a 'milestone' in India-Bangladesh connectivity, said Mazibul. The lone Maitree Express operates on the Dhaka-Kolkata route now.
According to the minister, the train services on the Khulna-Kolkata route continued until 1965 and now resumed after 43 years through a 'groundbreaking' initiative by Hasina.
A delegation of 36 officials of the railways and other departments travelled to Kolkata on the trial journey.
The Kolkata-Khulna-Dhaka bus service also started a trial run.
Three buses were flagged off from West Bengal’s secretariat, as part of the trial run that will be operational from June, according to the PTI.
Senior state ministers Partha Chatterjee, Subrata Mukherjee and Firad Hakim flagged off the buses.
The bus will travel 409km in around 13 hours to reach Dhaka.
The total time to reach Khulna, including security checks, at the border will be around seven hours.
Earlier bus services were introduced on the Kolkata-Dhaka-Agartala and the Kolkata-Dhaka routes.
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