It was scheduled to chug into Dhaka last July but got delayed by nine months. For people on both sides of the Bengal border, who had waited 42 years for the train, this meant a longer wait. Finally, on April 14, also the Bengali New Year, the Moitree Express, conceived on the lines of the Samjh-auta Express, and its six coaches will travel beyond Gede, the last station on the Indian side, into Bangladesh and Dhaka Cantonment. The 406-km distance will take eight hours.

Even after Partition in 1947, train services between Bengal and the then East Pakistan weren?t suspended. The Partition merely divided Bengal and Assam Railway into two. The 2,606.59-km stretch in East Pakistan was renamed Eastern Bengal Railway (EBR), which went through another change in 1961, when it called itself Pakistan Eastern Railway.

Passenger services were suspended after the 1965 war between India and Pakistan, but freight trains continued to ply. The rail link wasn’t restored even after Bangladesh?s independence in 1971, though India had helped Bangladesh?s cause. There were moves to restore the rail link during Indira Gandhi?s regime but did not get a go-ahead from either side owing to security concerns.

Then, in 2001, during the regime of former Bangla PM Sheikh Hasina, a trial run was held between Sealdah and Ibrahimabad on July 11. With bilateral relations hitting a low after Hasina’s exit, the project was put on the backburner? and finally shelved when Khaleda Zia came to power.

The issue was revived at the inter-governmental railway meeting held in Dhaka in March last year. A friendly caretaker government, led by interim PM Fakhruddin Ahmed, cleared the project last week, giving it the cabinet?s stamp of approval.

Once the rail link is re-established, India and Bangladesh will explore fresh road and rail routes to increase trade and ease passenger traffic. According to railway ministry sources, West Bengal was interested in restoration of the rail link through the Gede-Chuadanga point as it would help the state have better connectivity with north Bengal.

The need for a rail link between undivided Bengal and the rest of the country, especially north India, was thought of by a civil engineer in 1852. RM Stephenson wanted to link Bengal with the north after he founded a company in London called the East Indian Railway in 1844. Col JP Kennedy, a military civil engineer, first conceived of a rail line from Calcutta to the Sunderbans which would ultimately lead to Dhaka. Accordingly, the first field study was conducted by Major Aber Crombie and Lt Gerald Head of the Bengal Engineers in 1855. Their report suggested the formation of a new company, Eastern Bengal Railway.

The Calcutta-Ranaghat section of the Eastern Bengal Railway was commissioned on September 29, 1862. The Darsana-Jagati section, a distance of 53.11 km, was opened on November 15, 1862. The British government took over Eastern Bengal Railway, rechristening it Eastern Bengal State Railway.

Trade interests prompted the Eastern Bengal State Railway to open the 144-km long Narayanganj-Dhaka-Mymensingh link primarily to transport raw jute to the Narayanganj port. It started operating under the name Dhaka State Railway in 1885. Two years later, the narrow gauge rail line from Kaunia to Kurigram was amalgamated with Eastern Bengal State Railway.

The Bongaon-Jessore-Khulna link was opened in 1882-84 under the name of Bengal Central Railway and a 94-km line was laid from Santahar to Fulchhari. These links were also brought under Eastern Bengal State Railway in 1904. In 1915, the word ?state? was officially dropped. By 1916, the railway network covered a part of Rajshahi and Dhaka division.

Demands from tea planters made way for the construction of the Assam Bengal Railway in 1891. To achieve a link with the Chittagong port, a 150-km metre gauge track between Chittagong and Comilla was laid in 1895. Assam Bengal Railway was merged with the Eastern Bengal Railway under the name of the Bengal and Assam Railway in 1942.