Public movement declines sharply at Mahadipur Land Port
Malda: Passenger movement through the Mahadipur Land Port in Malda district has dropped drastically in recent weeks due to ongoing unrest in Bangladesh, officials said on Sunday.
Once a bustling transit point with nearly 1,000 passengers crossing daily, the port is now witnessing barely 80 to 90 travellers a day, most of them Indian nationals returning home, they added. Mahadipur, located under the jurisdiction of the English Bazar Police Station, is one of the most important land ports connecting Bengal with Bangladesh. However, deteriorating bilateral relations following political upheaval in Bangladesh have severely impacted both passenger traffic and cross-border trade.
Mahadipur Land Port Superintendent Pulak Baidya said that the situation has changed significantly. “At present, only a very small number of Bangladeshi citizens are entering India through Mahadipur, and all of them are carrying medical visas,” he said.
“The majority of people crossing over now are Indian nationals who had gone to Bangladesh for personal or urgent reasons.” Customs department sources echoed similar concerns, stating that non-essential travel by Bangladeshi passport holders has almost come to a standstill. “Except for medical emergencies, Bangladeshi nationals are not travelling to India through this route,” a customs official said. “On most days, the total number of passengers does not even touch 100.” Officials attributed the decline to political instability in Bangladesh following the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government on August 25, 2024.
Since then, anti-India slogans and protests under the caretaker government have strained relations between the two neighbouring countries, directly affecting the people-to-people movement. Earlier, Mahadipur saw a higher influx of passengers from Bangladesh than from India. “That balance has completely reversed,” a senior customs officer noted. “Indian citizens have largely stopped travelling to Bangladesh.”
Similar trends were seen at other land ports, including Hili (South Dinajpur), Fulbari (Jalpaiguri) and Changrabandha (Cooch Behar).
