Kolkata-Agartala bus service trial run via B’desh begins

The trial run to start a Kolkata-Dhaka-Agartala bus service began on Monday. The proposed Agartala-Kolkata bus service via Dhaka is expected to facilitate visiting mainland Indian states for people of the mountainous northeastern region, reducing the distance by over 1,000 km.

Agartala via Guwahati is 1,650 km from Kolkata by road. But the distance between Agartala and Kolkata via Bangladesh is only around 500 km. An air-conditioned 45-seater Volvo bus, carrying a 10-member delegation of the West Bengal government, departed from Kolkata’s Salt Lake international bus terminus at around 9 am on Monday.  The bus, likely to reach Bangladesh’s capital city of Dhaka by night, will start its return journey for Agartala on Tuesday morning. “After the introduction of the bus service, Kolkata and Agartala would come closer to each other,” West Bengal transport department principal secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay said.