DHAKA, 02 August 2021, (TON): India and Bangladesh began regular operation of freight trains through the Haldibari-Chilahati rail route 56 years after it had been suspended following the India-Pakistan war in 1965.

The service, which was inaugurated by the two countries' prime ministers during a virtual bilateral summit on December 17 last year, officially began yesterday with the Indian Railways dispatching stones from Dam Dim Station of Northeast Frontier Railway to Bangladesh.

This is the fifth rail route between the two countries after Petrapole-Benapole, Gede–Darshana, Singhabad-Rohanpur and Radhikapur–Birol.

The commodities that can be exported from India to Bangladesh through the rail route include stones and boulders, food grain, fresh fruits, chemical fertilisers, onion, chillies, garlic, ginger, fly ash, clay, lime, wood and timber etc. From Bangladesh, all exportable commodities can be sent.

Businesses see it as a very positive development as it will help reduce transport cost and time in the export-import business between the two neighbours.

In fiscal 2020-21, Bangladesh Railway transported 36.9 lakh tonnes of goods from India, which is more than double that from a year earlier. Subsequently, the railway's income from the cross-border trade hit a record Tk 167.7 crore, up 120 percent year-on-year.

The rail route can open a new horizon of regional trading: Bangladesh can export goods to Nepal through it, said Siddiqul Alam, executive member of Nilphamari Chamber of Commerce.