The Bhutan government is keen to use two Indian railway stations in the Dooars region of Bengal that are nearest to it for movement of goods and passengers to the country and simultaneously Indian Railways for its bilateral trade with Bangladesh.
On Monday, a 17-member delegation from Bhutan, comprising ministries and representatives of prominent trade bodies of the country, reached here for a meeting with Indian railway officials. Later, they visited Hasimara, a railway station in Alipurduar district around 20km from Phuentsholing, the commercial capital of Bhutan.
“Talks were held as to how Indian Railways can help in the logistics part for movement of items like automobiles, cement, stones... and movement of people to and from Bhutan. The visiting delegates said they wanted to explore avenues so that they can use our rail network and develop linkages even to Bangladesh,” said Deepak Kumar Singh, the divisional railway manager of Alipurduar division of Northeast Frontier Railway.
The delegation, comprising Tshering Lhadn, the head of economic diplomacy division of the Bhutan ministry of foreign affairs and Sonam Dhendup, regional director of the ministry of economic affairs posted in Phuentsholing, underscored the need for infrastructure development of Hasimara and Banarhat stations.
Located in Jalpaiguri, Banarhat is around 23km from Samtse of Bhutan.
According to railway officials, the October 28 delivery of a fleet of 75 SUVs made to the Bhutan via train from Chennai to Hasimara encouraged the Bhutan government to look at using the Indian rail network.
“The delegation also intends to visit Changrabandha (a land port with a railway station at the India-Bangladesh border) in due course. We are making arrangements. It is evident that along with the road network, they now want to use the railways to carry out bilateral trade with Bangladesh,” said a railway official.
As of now, trade between Bhutan and Bangladesh is mostly carried out via roads. Trucks carrying goods between these countries move through India and enter Bangladesh via Changrabandha or Fulbari (located on the outskirts of Siliguri).
The railway officials mentioned that this new approach of the Bhutan government is aimed at exploring the option of using the railway system for transportation of both goods and passengers.
They said that from India, five railway links to Bhutan have been planned, three routes from Assam — Kokrajhar-Gelephu, Pathsala-Naglam and Rangia-Samdrupjongkhar — and two routes from Bengal, Hasimara-Phuentsholing and Banarhat-Samtse.
“From our side, it was said that we are interested in expanding our role as the prime logistic operator for the region and its people. We shared our cost competitiveness and our ability to transport goods in bulk and fast to markets across India and Bhutan,” said an official.
At the meeting, discussions were also held on tourism, an important sector both for Bhutan and the Dooars.
“The idea is to showcase the Dooars route and stations like Hasimara which both domestic and international tourists can use to visit Bhutan. Now that the Mitali Express is running between Dhaka and New Jalpaiguri, Bangladeshi and Bhutanese tourists, members of the business fraternity and others can use the rail network to reach each other’s countries,” Singh, the divisional railway manager, said.