Bangladesh News

The tracks on which the Maitree Express ran on Monday are new, but the hopes it carried were vintage.
To many across the border, it was like “memory express,” not just a train transporting people to a land divided by an international border. And it took the next-door neighbours 43 years to see it possible, so strong was the legacy of a bitter war.

There were love and flower petals on both sides of the border and also blinking away of teardrops by many who experienced fond flashbacks to the days before 1965 when a passenger train service was there to bridge the two Bengals.

Pahela Baishakh this year was not merely the transition to a new year, but also an occasion to put behind the bitterness of war and strife and to strive together on the same track for better days.

It was 1:47 pm when the first passenger train from Bangladesh touched the Indian territory through a metal fencing heavily fortified by members drawn from Indian security and law enforcement agencies, to make the stopover at Gede Station after some moments.

It is the customs and immigration checking point for the passengers from Bangladesh.

There were very few who were not in law enforcers’ uniforms, but the usual uneasiness at the sight of the security forces of the neighbouring country was not there. The train ‘Maitree’, meaning ‘friendship,’ was aptly named.

An exchange of gushing happiness could be felt for quite a while as the two trains, the one leaving from Dhaka and the other from Kolkata, crossed at Darshana in Chuadanga. Here, the locomaster from the other country took charge of the other train. The engine splits and connects the bogies.

Curious eyes stick to windows gazing outside at the passing train for familiar faces, hands waving through windows and bogie doors.

The trans-border train began its inaugural run from the Cantonment Station at 8:30am Monday, one hour and 15 minutes after the train from Kolkata started rolling.

“This would definitely be one of my great memories,” Shawkat Ali, the main driver of the maiden run could not hide his excitement as he was talking to the reporters at the Cantonment Station.

He, however, would also experience a deprivation. “I feel bad that I would have to return from Darshana,” he regretted, his assistant Anwar Hossain also nodding to it.

The eyes of the passengers soon tracked down a number of foreign diplomats, including British High Commissioner Anwar Chowdhury and ADB Country Director Hua Du, who cheered with the musical bands on the platform invited to entertain the passenger of the maiden journey.

Excited at the news of the launching of the service, local people crowded at the station since morning, many clicking away on their cellphone cameras to capture the historic moments.

With the wave of the green flag, the train of hope and friendship rolled on the newly built tracks.

Curious people alongside the tracks at localities and also at fields waved to the train, complete with colourful buntings and garlands and a banner at the front.

For many, travelling by the train on its inaugural run meant to become a part of history.

However, there were some people like Momena Begum, 75, from Bikrampur, who had been missing the service for a long time.

“I was around 12, when I travelled with my elder sister to Kolkata,” Momena, travelling with her son, Harunur Rashid, said recalling her memory. She failed to say what year it was, but said that the train was ’strong’ though it ran on coal.

Her sister, Mojidon, who used to live at Park Street in Kolkata, is no more but there are some other relatives in Khidirpur whom they are going to meet, she said.

Back then, Momena used to board the train from Goalanda Station and get down at Sealdah Station.

Besides, Kolkata-bound passengers also used to get on the train at Fulbari Station in Gulistan.

“The train used to go to Bahadarabad and there we had to cross the river by steamer,” Roisul Alam Moina, a 57 year old man of Dhaka, recalled.

He was a class three student in 1962 when his father took him to Kolkata through Darshana by train.

“Now I am taking my family,” Moina said introducing this correspondent to his wife Dilara Alam, son Emranul Alam Tapu, 17, and daughter Zeenat Alam Tupu, 27.

He is travelling just to be on the ‘first trip,’ he added.

The train passed through Tongi, Gazipur and Tangail before making a 10-minute stopover at Ishwardi.

The bounty of paddy and corn offered a spectacular sight as the train seemed to cut through them on its 534 kilometre journey - 414 in Bangladesh and 120 in India.

The announcement in the train of approaching Darshana was an exciting moment for the passengers, as they already knew that the train from Kolkata had already arrived there, which is also the immigrations checkpoint for passengers from both countries.

The driver of the Dhaka-bound Maitree Express, however, was forced to stop the train near Gede station when some activists of Nikhil Banga Nagarik Sangha staged demonstrations against the Indo-Bangla train service.

However, police dispersed the demonstrators and cleared the tracks after 10 minutes.

It took about two hours and 13 minutes for immigration checking of the passengers from Dhaka, who got there after a six hour long journey.

A huge crowd from nearby localities thronged Darshana station to witness the maiden run. The students from Darshana Girls’ School, clad in colourful dresses, welcomed the passengers of both the trains with New Year’s greetings.

“This service should be more frequent,” Chhotelal Ram, the Indian train locomaster said as he was preparing to return to India with the train that arrived from Dhaka.

The banner from Dhaka engine replaced the one from Kolkata at the front of the train. The No 3107 train become part of No 3110 train in its journey to Kolkata via Gede at the border, which is about 4km from Darshana.

Though the two countries agree on putting metal fencing on both sides near the border, Bangladesh is yet to start it.

As the passengers got off to be thoroughly checked, they found themselves in a waiting lounge after the customs and security personnel led them through small door for checking.

The journey resumed after almost two and half hours. Although the train ran a bit faster on its way from Gede, it was 9:30pm(BDT) when it reached its destination, Chitpur station.

The exhausted passengers were not in a mood for a big welcome after the long journey and there were no such arrangements. Only single dancer was performing on a podium built there on the occasion of the train service launching. Still, it had the sincerity that touched the incoming passengers.

Additional Communications Secretary ATKM Ismail is the head of the 28-member government delegation, who travelled on the inaugural Maitree Express.

Indian High Commissioner Pinak Ranjan Chakravarti, who also travelled to Kolkata aboard the train, talked with the passengers about their feelings.

“The main objective of the service is to merge it with the trans-Asia railway,” he said during the journey.

Several advisers including Communications Adviser Ghulam Quader was present Dhaka during the inauguration ceremony. They hoped that the service would increase trade and commerce between the two countries apart from improving relation among people.