India on Friday announced travel curbs along its land borders to reduce the risk of importing fresh cases of the novel coronavirus.

A senior home ministry official said India would suspend passenger bus and train services between India and Bangladesh up to April 15 and also temporarily shut 20 of the 39 land-border checkposts shared with neighbouring countries.

“We’ll allow people only through 19 land-border checkposts,” the official told reporters in New Delhi. The fewer number of land-border crossings will facilitate more effective screening of incoming travellers.”

The official said a decision had not yet been taken on the Kartarpur corridor — a route towards a pilgrimage site in Pakistan — that is used by on average 300 to 400 people every day.

Debashish Chatterjee, an immigration officer posted at Mahadipur, a land customs station on the India-Bangladesh border in Malda district, said: “Although some Indians are still going to Bangladesh, the entry of Bangladeshi citizens was stopped on Wednesday.

As per the directive issued by the Centre, this will be in force till April 15.”

Every day, 200 to 300 Bangladeshi residents enter India through Mahadipur.

At the border, Indians wanting to visit Bangladesh are being advised to postpone their trips.

“The Centre has clearly mentioned that non-essential travel abroad should be avoided. Even if they go, they will have to face quarantine for 14 days (once back). That is why the number of Indian travellers to Bangladesh is also low,” said Bhupati Mandal, a representative of the Mahadipur Clearing and Forwarding Agents’ Welfare Association.

Educational institutions in north Bengal have also been affected.

On Friday, the authorities of St Michael’s School, a day boarding-cum-residential school in Siliguri, extended the ongoing holidays as a number of its students are citizens of neighbouring countries, including Bangladesh.

“The management has to take such a decision for the safety of the students, and

also because of the restrictions on movement along the international borders. We have students from neighbouring states and countries,” said a source.

Thermal screening is being done on the Nepal and Bhutan borders, too, in north Bengal. “Our men are keeping a watch on travellers entering from Nepal and Bhutan, along with the health staff,” said an official of the Sashastra Seema Bal.

Ukraine couple

In Siliguri, a fever-struck couple from Ukraine who had ignored advice at the Nepal border to get admitted to a hospital in the neighbouring country and turned back to India were admitted to a Siliguri hospital by police on Friday.

“They came back and when screened on the Indian side, they were not found to have high fever. After receiving information from Nepal, the couple were located and taken to the hospital for an examination on Friday. At the hospital too, they were not found to have high fever. Later, they were escorted to Bagdogra airport from where they took a flight to Delhi,” a source said.