Agartala-Dhaka bus service: India, Bangla to sign pact next month

AGARTALA, July 23: India and Dhaka will sign an agreement next month to start Agartala-Dhaka bus service after the successful running of the 'Souhardha' service between Calcutta and Dhaka, reports UNI. A senior official told newspersons here on Sunday that a 16-member joint Indo-Bangla official team had recently conducted an-the-spot survey to examine the 144-km-long road with its infrastructural facilities to commence the service. The joint working group that held a meeting with Tripura Chief Secretary V Thulasidas on this subject on July 18 came here by road. The senior officials of the two countries held a meeting the next day in Dhaka to finalise the modalities of the proposed bus service. This would facilitate the NE region people to go to Bangladesh easily and more comfortably. The eight-member Indian delegation was led by External Affairs Ministry's Director Banashree Basu Harison, while the Bangladesh delegation was headed by Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation Chairman Md Ajmol Chowdhury. An official of the Indian delegation, who returned here on Saturday said that the road and other infrastructural conditions were most favourable to operate the bus service, only a stretch of 15 km on the Bangladesh side needed repair which would be done soon. The two meetings held in July were to follow-up the high-level meeting held in New Delhi on June 28. The joint official team also visited the Tripura Road Transport Corporation (TRTC) bus terminus. The TRTC had procured two new buses with all modern facilities to launch the service. It would take some 3 hours to reach Dhaka from here by bus.