The escalating unrest in Bangladesh has led to a major fall in the movement of passengers from India to the neighbouring country through land ports across the international border.
The movement of passengers on foot, particularly through the land ports, has recorded a fall of about 40 per cent in the last two days.
Even though there has been no disruption in bilateral trade between India and Bangladesh because of the unrest till Thursday evening (Friday was a weekly holiday), the impact of the ongoing students' agitation on passenger movement has been felt because of the suspension of Maitree Express, which runs between Calcutta and Dhaka, from Friday.
The movement of passengers from India to Bangladesh is expected to go down further over the next few days as Bangladesh authorities had to stop issuing visas from Friday as Internet services have been snapped in the neighbouring country, a source in the office of the deputy high commissioner of Bangladesh in Calcutta said.
"Till Thursday we have issued visas. But with the Internet becoming non-operational in Bangladesh, we had no option but to stop the service of issuing visas," he added.
Bengal shares six international check posts with Bangladesh — Petrapole, Ghojadanga, Gede, Mahadipur, Hili, and Changrabandha — and around 12,000 people regularly cross the border through these check posts, mostly Bangladeshi nationals who visit Calcutta for medical and business purposes.
However, since the unrest began to escalate last week, a continued fall in passenger movement has been recorded. It created a sudden financial impact on the people associated with currency exchange services, hospitality, eateries, and transportation services in the vicinity of the land ports.
Dinabandhu Mahaldar, a currency exchange agent in Nadia's Gede port, said: "Our net volume of business has come down by 50 per cent during the last two days. A few people arrived who needed to exchange money. Most of the people who crossed the border to enter India were Indians who returned home out of fear.”
“Only around 200 passengers attended our counter on Friday, which on a normal day crosses 800,” Mahaldar added.
On Friday, the passenger terminal at the Petrapole checkpost looked deserted throughout the day with very few people seen being examined by the immigration and customs officials at the counters.
The port, which generally records the movement of around 8,000 passengers, recorded the movement of only 5,723 passengers on Friday.
On Thursday, Petrapole, which is considered the largest land port in Asia for movements of cargo and passengers, recorded the passage of 4,945 passengers.
Manager of Land Ports Authority of India (LPAI), Petrapole, Kamalesh Saini, said: “Around 30 per cent to 40 per cent fall has been recorded during the past few days in the movement of passengers, even though there is no restriction from our side.”
The external affairs ministry on Friday urged the Indians in Bangladesh to follow the advisory issued by the High Commission of India in Dhaka that told them to “stay indoors” to avoid “unwanted trouble”.
The advisory stated that because of the ongoing situation in Bangladesh, the Indian community members and the Indian students residing there should avoid travel and minimise their movement outside their living premises.
Nevertheless, on Friday, 33 medical students, including Indian, Nepalese, and Bhutanese nationals attached to Rangpur Medical College, walked into India through the Changrabandha check post to return to their homes.
However, in two other check posts — Hili of South Dinajpur and Mahadipur of Malda — no major impact on people’s movement was noticed so far. Every day, around 400 people cross the border in Hili, while another 250-odd people move between the countries through Mahadipur.
Additional reporting by Main Uddin Chisti
