Restore pre-1965 routes with India, says PM Hasina

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina wants all land routes used between India and erstwhile East Pakistan before the 1965 Indo-Pak war restored.

When a delegation from a university in northeast Indian state of Meghalaya called on Hasina, she referred to the importance attached all over the world to regional connectivity to promote development.
 
The delegation led by Dean of the School of Business of Meghalaya University of Science and Technology, Alaka Sharma, paid a courtesy visit to the prime minister at Ganabhaban on Tuesday.
 
Later, Hasina's Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim told mediapersons: "The prime minister told the visitors that she was keen to restore all the land routes between Bangladesh and India that were used before the 1965 war.”
 
He said the prime minister told the visiting delegation that Bangladesh was ever grateful for the Indian support during the 1971 Liberation War.
 
The visiting Meghalaya university delegation emphasised greater cooperation between teachers and students of Bangladesh and India and said much scope existed for cooperation between the two countries in the fields of Information technology and healthcare. 
 
Despite the country's Partition in 1947, many bus and train services operated between erstwhile East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and India continued to be used.

But they were closed down after the 1965 Indo-Pakistan war.
 
After Sheikh Hasina became Prime Minister in 1996, the Dhaka-Kolkata bus service was started. Train services between Dhaka and Kolkata started in 2008.
 
During Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Bangladesh this year, the Dhaka-Shillong-Guwahati and the Kolkata-Dhaka-Agartala bus services were flagged off.

The Awami League government has emphasised regional connectivity as a driver for economic growth and the BBIN arrangement worked out this year is likely to facilitate seamless movement of vehicles between India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan.
 
Kolkata Correspondent adds:
 
On Tuesday, during the Kolkata-Kunming Forum's annual conference in Kolkata, West Bengal Transport Secretary Alapan Bandopadhyay proposed inclusion of China in the BBIN arrangement.
 
Other delegates at the conference proposed inclusion of Myanmar and other Southeast Asian countries in the arrangement as well.
 
Bangladesh is at the heart of it all, said Indian diplomat K Nagraj Naidu.