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| Ramesh at Dawki on Monday. Picture by Eastern Projections |
Shillong, Sept. 25: The much-awaited Shillong-Dhaka bus service is set to begin next year.
Disclosing this here today, Union minister of state for commerce Jairam Ramesh said the service would help cement ties between India and Bangladesh.
He said the governments of India and Bangladesh had mutually agreed to initiate the bus service from next year. “Clearances have been got from the two governments and we are ready,” he said.
The proposal, mooted after the Agartala-Dhaka bus service was initiated last year, had been hanging fire because of “clearance problems” from Bangladesh.
Ramesh said the bus route would be Shillong-Dawki-Sylhet-Dhaka. The ministries of external affairs and surface transport will work out the logistics for initiating the bus service early next year.
Dawki is a leading land customs station in the Jaintia Hills along the Indo-Bangladesh border through which coal is exported to Bangladesh. Ramesh visited the border trade point yesterday and urged the local residents to co-operate so as to give momentum to the long-pending Dawki township proposal.
The state government has so far procured 40 per cent of the 29,000 square metres required for the township. Procurement of the rest of the land is entangled in legal hurdles with landowners. The state government has been trying to settle it.
Ramesh said Rs 50 crore has been earmarked for development of infrastructure as part of the proposed Dawki border township. .
The minister underscored the need for setting up “an electronic weighbridge” in Dawki to measure the actual volume of coal exports to Bangladesh.
He alleged that some “local forces” did “not want an electronic weighbridge and computerisation of the land customs station for their personal motive.”
Declaring war against the “coal mafia”, he promised to set up an electronic weighbridge at Dawki within nine months, even at the cost of bloodshed, failing which he vowed not to visit Meghalaya again.
On any given day, 150 coal-laden trucks cross over to Bangladesh through Dawki. According to Ramesh, the state government loses royalty worth Rs 450 from every tonne of coal exported.
Ramesh also proposed that chief minister D.D. Lapang sign a memorandum of understanding with the Spices Board and the ITC for marketing of organic ginger and turmeric and set up a centre for public health training called the Indian Institute of Public Health.