New Delhi: A decorated international standard passenger bus between Dhaka and Guwahati via Shillong was ceremonially flagged off on its trial run on Friday from the Kamlapur Bus Stand in Bangladesh on Friday afternoon.
Road Transport and Bridges Minister of Bangladesh Obaidul Quader inaugurated the bus service. Starting from Dhaka, bus would run through Sylhet to Shillong to Guwahati, MEA sources said.
The total straight line distance between Dhaka and Guwahati is 309 km.
If a bus runs at the speed of 50km per hour, it will take around 7 hours to reach Guwahati.
Currently, two buses having seating capacity for 40 are running between Dhaka and Kolkata every day starting since 1999. The bus service between Dhaka and Agartala started in 2003.
The direct bus service between Dhaka and Guwahati, expected to start next month, will promote tourism right away and business in future besides enhancing people to people contact.
For the trial run, a bus with officials of different ministries from India had reached Bangladesh
Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi and his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the third bus service between the two countries during the former visit to Dhaka early next month. In December last year, a joint survey found some roads on both sides of the borders in poor condition and immigration and customs facilities inadequate which is improving now. The route falls in one of the Asian highway routes. The Asian highway is a network of 1,41,000km of standard roadways crisscrossing Asian countries and linking them with Europe was conceived in 1959 with an aim to promote development of international road transport in the continent. A good number of Bangladeshis visit Shillong and Guwahati regularly.
There are also people who are relatives living across the borders and they visit each other often.
Currently, the journey on the route is time-consuming as travelers have to change transports at different points before reaching their destinations.
But the direct bus service will reduce the travel time by three to five hours.
