Maitree Express: The friendship train between India and Bangladesh

Maitree Express will allow passengers to complete immigration and customs at point of departure

By reinstating two railway routes from the British colonial era, India and Bangladesh are hoping for increased friendship and peace between its citizens. The Maitree Express, which started operations nine years ago, is slowly winning the hearts and minds of travelers by providing affordable and regular transport between the two countries.

How political divisions affected the railway

Bengal is a large geopolitical area in the Indian sub-continent; with more than 250 million Bengalis, it is one of the densely populated regions of the world, united by language and culture, but divided by religion. The first blow was the partition of Bengal in 1905, announced by the British colonial rulers, which separated the largely Muslim eastern areas from the largely Hindu western areas. Bengal was reunited in 1911, but Hindus and Muslims soon began to demand the creation of two independent states inside Bengal.

Map showing the location of East Bengal and West Bengal. Image by Goran via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0