Trains to Pak and Bangladesh have too long a hold-up for immigration formalities.
It was meant to help heal the wounds of partition. But patronage needs to pick up on Indian Railway's border services.
Neither the Kolkata-Dhaka ‘Maitree Express’ or the ‘Samjhauta Express’ connecting India and Pakistan are seen as desired options because of the long hours taken to complete the border crossing formalities.
The bi-weekly Maitree Express was launched on April 14, 2008. Even now, though, “Total capacity is 275, while it carries about 70 to 75 passengers,” Samir Goswami, spokesperson of the Eastern Railway said.
The total journey time in the train for a distance of about 538 km (120km in India, 418 km in Bangladesh) from Kolkata to Dhaka is about 11 hours. Passengers have to spend about four hours for completing customs and immigration formalities on both sides of the border — two hours at Gede, the last station in India, and another two hours at Darshana, the first in Bangladesh.
Passengers say individually crossing the border is more practical, as that cuts the immigration time to a maximum of an hour. “I travelled by Maitree Express last year. It takes almost four hours to complete customs and immigration formalities, which is the most irritating part. Otherwise, it is a maximum eight-hour journey. So, next time I will prefer the Petrapole border, as I can reach Dhaka in seven to eight hours,” says Samiran, a resident of Kolkata with relatives at the Bangladeshi capital.
More From This Section
According to a study by Rail India Technical and Economic Services in 2006, passenger traffic was 1,159 people per day (both incoming and outgoing) at the Petrapole-Benapole border, 95 km from here, the land border point with Bangladesh in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district. The total passenger traffic was projected in the study as 3,924 people per day by 2029-30.
“It takes a maximum of an hour nowadays for immigration clearances. Once you reach Benapole, you can take a bus for Dhaka. It takes five hours from there and buses are always available,” says Brishti, a fourth-year student of Delhi's Indian Institute of Planning and Architecture, who uses the route to travel to her home in Bangladesh.
According to a spokesperson of Eastern Railway, they are in touch with Bangladesh Railway to address the problem of long hours taken for immigration. “We are always in talks with Bangladesh Railway to make the journey more attractive for passengers. We hope to sort out out all these issues in the near future,” he said.
The train had an increase in number of passengers since the schedule got changed on August 1, 2009. “It used to carry about 40 passengers when it started. The train used to run on weekends (Saturday and Sunday). The number of passengers have increased after the schedule got changed. Because of the changed schedule, people who come for a day's work are preferring the train, as they can come to Kolkata and leave for Dhaka the very next day,” he added.
The train now departs from Dhaka at 8:30 am (BST) on Tuesdays and Sundays and reaches Kolkata at 6.45 pm (IST) the same day. It leaves Kolkata at 7:10 am (IST) on Wednesdays and Saturdays and arrives in Dhaka at 7:30 pm (BST) the same day.
PAKISTAN SIDE
It is a similar story with the Samjhauta Express. The average occupancy since this January is about 30 per cent of the total capacity, an official of Northern Railway said. The Delhi-Attari link train that takes the passengers to Attari, from where they have to take Samjhauta Express to reach Lahore, has a total of 777 seats. The bi-weekly train carries about 250 passengers at a time. The total journey time from Delhi to Lahore is about 15 hours, which includes about four hours of immigration and customs clearances at Attari.
“There are a lot of restrictions. It has a major stop at Attari for the customs procedures. It took about over three hours for all these,” a traveller writes on a travel guide website.
“It’s a lot quicker and simpler to take a bus to the border, cross, and then a bus on to Lahore. Both Lahore and Amritsar are about 30 minutes from the Wagah border,” writes another person.
However, the weekly Thar Express seems quite a hit. “It has a capacity of 576 passengers and is running almost full.” said Lalit Bohra, spokesperson of North Western Railway. The train connects Bhagat ki Kothi near Jodhpur and Karachi. For six months in the year, the rake is an Indian one and for the other six months, it is a rake of Pakistan Railways. “Because of partition, a lot of people in this part of the country have relatives in Pakistan. They really prefer the train journey,” he said. It also takes three to four hours for immigration and customs clearance.