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“We recently received proposals from India in this regard and are now scrutinising all necessary aspects,” said Sultana Yasmin, a deputy secretary of Road Transport and Highway Division.

The division called for a meeting on January 13 to discuss all relevant issues, she told The Daily Star yesterday.

Representatives of the National Board of Revenue, and the ministries of foreign affairs, home, and commerce, Roads and Highways Department, Bangladesh Road Transport Authority and Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) are expected to join.The development came a year after the trial run of direct bus services on the Dhaka-Gangtok and Dhaka-Darjeeling routes via Siliguri, was conducted, aiming to boost cross-border passenger services.

The trial run -- conducted after the countries’ agreement in principle to launch direct bus services -- found that direct bus service between Dhaka-Gangtok and Dhaka-Darjeeling would not be pleasant due to the narrow roads from Siliguri, a member of the trial team said.

“So both countries decided to launch the Dhaka-Siliguri direct bus service. Travellers would be able to go to Darjeeling and Gangtok using smaller vehicles from there,” he said.

Currently, travellers have to change buses at the border to go to West Bengal’s Siliguri.

BRTC spokesperson Amjad Hossain said, “Both countries agreed to open the route and work on signing of an agreement... is now going on. We are hopeful of starting bus operations within two weeks after connectivity between the countries is restored.”

Bus services between Bangladesh and India were suspended in March due to the pandemic.

Amjad, also general manager (accounts) at BRTC, said Shyamoli NR Travels operates buses on all five routes and it might be allowed to operate buses on the new route as well.

Shyamoli Managing Director Suvenker Ghosh Rakesh said his company is ready to operate buses when the authorities allow it to do that.

The Distance between Dhaka and Darjeeling via Siliguri is around 450km whereas distance between Dhaka and Gangtok via Siliguri is around 500km.