Cooch Behar - Aug, 18. - Mr. Nirmal Das, Alipurduar MLA and convener of the Dooars Rail Unnayan Sangram Committee, appealed
yet again to chief minister Mr. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to take an
early initiative in restoring the rail link between Gitaldaha in Cooch
Behar and Mogulhat in Bangladesh.
On Wednesday last week, he met Mr.
Bhattacharjee and urged him to take up the matter with the railway
minister to convince him to reintroduce the train communication
through this route. He had also appealed to the chief minister and
the transport minister on 29 July at the state Assembly.
During his visit, Mr. Das told Mr. Bhattacharjee that not only
the people of Cooch Behar, Alipurduar and Dooars, but also the neighbouring
country of Bhutan would benefit if the rail link was restored. It
may further better relations between India and Bangladesh, he said.
If the rail link was revived, commuters of North Bengal could reach
Kolkata within eight and a half hours from Alipurduar Junction in
North Bengal, he said. He told the chief minister that he himself
had written to the railway minister and the chairman of the railway
board to consider the proposal in the interests of better relations
among SARC countries. Mr. Das said that the chief minister assured
him about considering his proposal.
A large section of people from all walks of life in Cooch Behar
and Alipurduar welcomed the initiative taken by Mr. Das to restore
the Indo-Bangladesh rail link through Gitaldaha in Cooch Behar.
In Alipurduar, Prof. Banabihari Dutta, secretary of Prabeen Nagarik
sanstha, Mr. Uttam Basu of Alipurduar Town Byabasayee Samity, Nirmal
Kr. Bhattacharya, an eminent poet, and Bimalendu Bishnu, a writer,
congratulated the move.
In Cooch Behar, Mr. Parthanath Sarkar, President of G-NESEP, an
NGO working in the North-east region, too, made an appeal to the
railway minister, calling for necessary initiatives in restoring
the link. He said, restoration of train services on the Gitaldaha-
Mogulhat route was important for communications between India and
Bangladesh, as well as Lower Assam and West Bengal. The Alipurduar
and Bamanhat section of the NF Railway was extended to Golokganj
of Lower Assam before the country's independence, Mr. Sarkar reminded.
Welcoming the move, Mr. Rabindranath Gosh, president of the Cooch
Behar district Trinmul Congress, hoped that the two neighbouring
countries would enter into a treaty, like the Tinbigha agreement,
to restore the rail link.
Courtesy
The Statesman |
Home | About Us | Contact
Us | Site Map | Feedback
