Maitree raises hope to open trade route

Barely has the dust settled on the Maitree’s tracks that people have started talking about the infinite possibilities this link will bring to business. The bus service has existed for a while now, but the train, say Bangladeshis, brings with it an “emotional quotient”. They are now looking forward to a positive growth in trade, a healthy exchange of tourists and a fillip to health tourism — the latter to West Bengal’s advantage.

The Indian Express caught up with Bijanur Rahman Pappu at the ticket booking counter for the Maitree Express at the Kamalpur station in Dhaka. Pappu travels quite frequently to Kolkata’s Apollo Hospital, accompanying his uncle for treatment. “The journey will no longer be arduous now. The fare is higher than that of the bus, but the comfort will more than make up for it,” he said.

Health tourism is one prospective area of growth which will help West Bengal. The speciality private healthcare centers in and around Kolkata are always crowded with Bengaldeshi patients, some of them with valid passports, some making it through the “unofficial” routes. The opening of the train link is likely to give a boost to this sector, feel many.

Interestingly, sari shops are also looking forward to this new beginning. The tangail and Dhakai jamdanis have always been a favourite with women on both sides of the border. The shops at Baily Road have a broad base clientele of visitors from Kolkata. “These visits will definitely increase and that means more sari shopping,” said R Hanif, who runs a sari shop on Baily Road.

Hanif says with a smile that the sari might single-handedly wipe out the trade deficit between the two countries. At present, India imports goods from Dhaka worth half a million dollars while Indian exports to Bangladesh totals upto approximately two billion dollars. Apart from rice, sugar, pulses nearly 30 per cent of Bangladesh’s heavy industry inputs are exported by India.

Tourism in the two countries will grow — that is the common belief. “A person taking his wife and children on an ‘international’ family trip can just take the train to Kolkata,” said Asaduzzaman Chowdhury, General Manager of Toka Ink Bangladesh.

Business from Dhaka is also looking at North-East states in India, particularly Tripura. Former President of Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry, M A Momen said: “Business delegations from Tripura can come to Bangladesh through the borders of the Comilla and Brhmanbaria districts in Bangladesh, and take the train to Kolkata. This is definitely a better link.” It is a symbiosis and it will be particularly benefit for small and medium scale entrepreneurs who comprise at least 80 per cent of the 4,500 members of the DCCI, Momen added.