Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Haldibari- Chilahati Rail Link
Mains level: Not Much
The freight trains have started commuting via the restored Haldibari (India) – Chilahati (Bangladesh) rail link.
Haldibari- Chilahati Rail Link
- The Haldibari – Chilahati rail link between India and then East Pakistan was operational till 1965.
- The distance between Haldibari Railway Station till the international border is 4.5 km, while that of Chilahati is around 7.5 km till the ‘zero points’.
- This was part of the Broad-Gauge main route from Kolkata to Siliguri during the partition.
- Trains traveling to Assam and North Bengal continued to travel through the then East Pakistan territory even after partition.
- However, the war of 1965 effectively cut off all the railway links between India and then East Pakistan.
- The link was reopened in 2020 for the movement of passenger and goods traffic.
Other railway links between India and Bangladesh
As of now, five links connecting India with Bangladesh have been made operational which include:
- Petrapole (India) – Benapole (Bangladesh)
- Gede (India) – Darshana (Bangladesh)
- Singhabad (India) – Rohanpur (Bangladesh)
- Radhikapur (India) – Birol (Bangladesh)
- Haldibari (India) – Chilahati (Bangladesh)
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