Linked below is an article (in Bangla) about new developments for the Kolkata - Bangladesh international passenger rail service. Those that can read Bangla, they can read the article. For the rest, here is gist of the new developments:
1. The frequency of the Kolkata - Dhaka service will be increased to four times a week starting sometime in October, date to be announced.
2. Starting in January all seats on the Kolkata - Dhaka service will be air conditioned. The A/C accommodation both First and Second class are selling out weeks in advance while the non A/C are going partly empty.
3. Starting early next a year a new weekly service between Kolkata and Khulna will be re-established. This would be the re-establishment of what used to be called Barisal Express until it was discontinued in 1965.
4. A decision has been made to discontinue border checks at Gede and Darshana at the border, and move all border checking formalities to the two origin points - Kolkata (Chitpur) and Dhaka Cantonment. When implemented this will immediately cut out about three hours from the schedule of the train.
This probably goes hand in hand with making the train all A/C, since it is easier to seal a train that is all A/C.
5. The Kolkata - Dhaka service is now more profitable than anyone had ever guessed it would be. Bangladesh Railway is making a cool surplus of 6 Crore* Taka per year on this service, which is likely to increase to 8 Crore* Taka with the introduction of the fourth frequency. This is just the 75% share that Bangladesh Railway gets. The other 25% is allocated to Indian Railways.
Converting the entire train to AC will increase the top line considerably as over 250 additional seats start going for the higher A/C fare for only minimal increase in cost of operation.
I wish India would throw in some LHB rakes on this run, now that Bangladesh has LHB coaches on many of its Broad Gauge trains, including several that originate/terminate at Khulna.
In case you want to try your hand at reading some Bangla the original article can be found here.
*One Crore = 1,00,00,000. One US Dollar is worth about 78 Bangla Taka (27 Sept 2016)
Edited by jis, 27 September 2016 - 10:55 AM.
