Mitali Express train connecting India-Bangladesh was flagged off on Thursday (June 1).
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and Minister of Railways of Bangladesh Md. Nurul Islam Sujan jointly flagged off the 13132 Mitali Express vitually in Delhi on Wednesday (June 1).
While Lok Sabha MP Jayanta Roy and West Bengal MLA Sankar Ghosh flagged off the train from New Jalpaiguri station in presence of large gathering.
General Manager of the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) Anshul Gupta along with other senior officials of Headquarter and Divisions were also present at New Jalpaiguri Station during the flagging off ceremony.
With the running of this train Bangladesh will be directly connected with the Northeast of India through rail.
Apart from boosting the rail connectivity between India and Bangladesh, this train service will provide impetus to socio-economic development between the two countries facilitating movement of goods and passengers across borders and supporting growth and regional trades. This new train will provide the much needed fillip to the tourism sector of India and Bangladesh. This train also offers reliable, affordable and comfortable mode of transport for passengers thus providing ease of accessibility to India and Bangladesh, NFR said in a statement.
Train No. 13132 New Jalpaiguri – Dhaka Cantonment Mitali Express will run two days a week leaving New Jalpaiguri at 11:45 hours (IST) on every Sunday and Wednesday to reach Dhaka Cantonment at 22:30 hours (BST). In return direction, Train No. 13131 Dhaka Cantonment – New Jalpaiguri Mitali Express will also run two days a week on Monday and Thursday from 02nd June, 2022 leaving Dhaka Cantonment at 21:50 hours (BST) to reach New Jalpaiguri at 07:15 hours (IST) on Tuesday and Friday.
The train will run with four AC 1st Class coaches (cabin seating/sleeper) and four AC chair cars coaches with two luggages cum generator cars.
There is capacity to accommodate total 456 passengers during journey from New Jalpaiguri. During return journey from Dhaka Cantt station total 408 passengers can travel.
The tickets for this International train are available at the overseas PRS counters of New Jalpaiguri and Kolkata Railway Station.
This new train is in addition to two existing passenger train services, namely Kolkata-Dhaka-Kolkata Maitree Express (five days in a week) and Kolkata-Khulna-Kolkata Bandhan Express (two days in a week) between India and Bangladesh. The services of above two trains, which were suspended due to Covid Pandemic restrictions, have been resumed from May 29.
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