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Maitree Express fails to attract passengers

No let-up in harassment by Indian customs in the name of checking

M Abul Kalam Azad
The Maitree Express Train could not be popular since its resumption four years ago due to objectionable actions by the Indian side in the name of checking passengers, said Bangladesh Railway (BR) officials.
Although the Indian authorities have stopped using the dog squad for checking passengers just last month in the face of strong objection from Bangladesh, they continue to confine passengers in a cage-like structure at the border station of Gede until the checking of all the passengers is over.
The passengers are not allowed to take their seats in the train even after the customs and immigration formalities are done. BR officials termed the practice outrageous and disgraceful.
However, Bangladesh authorities check passengers with metal detectors and allow them to take seats after the customs and immigration formalities are done at Darsana station.
Previously, Indian security agencies with dog squads used to get on the Maitree Express to check the passengers of the transboundary train at the Gede station. Women, children and elderly people on the train would be frightened, some even cried, seeing the large canines coming towards them and sniffing around.
The Maitree train resumed service in April 2008, after a break of 43 years. Every Friday one train of BR leaves Dhaka for Kolkata and returns on Saturday while an Indian train reaches Dhaka on Tuesday and returns back to Kolkata the next day.
The disappointing fact is that when hundreds of Bangladeshis go to India every day by other modes of transport, only 103 people on an average take the Maitree train, which offers accommodation for 234 passengers.
A senior railway official said, “Maitree train can't attract people as they are searched by dog squads and confined in a cage for
hours.”
In an Inter-Governmental Railway Meeting (IGRM) held in Delhi on May 7-8, Bangladesh strongly objected to the use of dog squad and the confinement of passengers. After that India, which earlier refused to withdraw the dog squad, stopped the practice.
Bangladesh Railway also put forward some proposals in the meeting.
“We proposed to handle luggage as it is done in airports. The luggage can be tagged before people get on the train and be collected on showing the corresponding tags,” BR Additional Director General (Operations) Mohammad Shahjahan told The Daily Star.
Letting freedom fighters travel on Maitree train free of cost was another proposal tabled in the meeting, he said, adding that the Indian side had half-heartedly agreed to the proposals.
Shahjahan, who headed a two-member delegation to the IGRM, said the luggage handling procedures in the trans-boundary train stand in the way of popularising the service. “It is difficult for elderly and female travellers to carry their luggage on several occasions during the journey."
He hoped the Indian side would immediately stop the practice of keeping passengers waiting in a cage and implement the BR proposals as soon as possible.