Tag Archives: Bangladesh

Novoair, a private airline in Bangladesh, is planning to connect Dhaka with Kolkata from December 1. In addition, the airline will start flights on the Chittagong-Kolkata route from December 14. Initially, four flights from Dhaka will be operated from December 1 on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday, while on the remaining days from Chittagong from December 14, informed Mofizur Rahman, Managing Director, Novoair. Md. Hasibur Rashid, Director, Novoair, Sohail Majid, Head of Marketing and Sales, Novoair, and other officials from the airline were present at the launch of the new flight operations. The return ticket for Dhaka-Kolkata-Dhaka will start from Tk 9,999 (including all taxes) while the return promotional fare on the Chittagong-Kolkata route will start from Tk 11,555 (including all taxes). “We will connect Dhaka and Chittagong to Kolkata throughout the week very soon,” said Rahman. He further added that the airline has planned to launch Dhaka-Kathmandu and Dhaka-Guwahati flights also as next international destinations. “We are now exploring commercial viability on Dhaka-Kathmandu route while operation on Dhaka-Guwahati route will follow the suit after establishing the Bangladesh Consulate in Guwahati,” said Rahman. Source: Financial Express

Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu will lay the foundation stone for a new cross-border line on July 31 linking Agartala in Tripura, with Akhaura, in Bangladesh’s Chittagong region. The project is expected to cost Rs 9.68 billion (US$144 million) and will run for just 15 km either side of the border – 5 km on the Indian side and 10km on the Bangladeshi side. However, the link will help increase accessibility between the remote state of Tripura and the rest of India. The 1,650 km distance between Agartala and Kolkata will be reduced to only 550 km once the new rail track is linked. Presently, India and Bangladesh have four rail links with West Bengal.

Bangladesh is likely to allow India’s passenger and cruise vessels through its waterways helping the landlocked northeast to have better connectivity. Md. Shahriar Alam, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Bangladesh, reportedly announced that the two countries were planning to start a movement of passenger and cruise vessels on coastal shipping routes and a memorandum of understanding is to be signed between New Delhi and Dhaka for the same. The Indo-Bangla coastal shipping agreement has opened up new avenues of connectivity and trade facilitation. The declaration by Alam comes amid a spate of other initiatives over the past couple of years that have allowed India transit rights through Bangladesh for better connectivity between the Northeast and other parts of India. The Indo-Bangla MoU on the use of Chittagong and Mongla ports by India would further enhance connectivity not only bilaterally but also sub-regionally when Nepal and Bhutan become part of the Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal (BBIN) initiative. BBIN is a sub-regional architecture of countries in South Asia to formulate, implement and review quadrilateral agreements across areas such as water resources management, connectivity of power, transport and infrastructure. BBIN signed a Motor Vehicles Agreement last year. It enables vehicles to enter any of the four nations without the need for trans-shipment of goods from one country’s truck to another’s at the border. Under the system, cargo vehicles are tracked electronically; permits are issued online and sent electronically to all land ports. Source: Economic Times

As revealed by Ministry of Tourism, India witnessed a 10.7 per cent growth in FTAs in April, 2016 over the same period in 2015. The total number of FTAs during April, 2016 was recorded at 5.99 lakh, which is higher than the total number of FTAs in April, 2015 and April 2014, where the numbers were recorded as 5.42 lakh and 5.35 lakh foreign tourists respectively. Bangladesh accounted for the highest percentage share in foreign tourist arrivals (FTAs) into India with 18.09 per cent during the month of April 2016. Among the top 15 source countries, USA was ranked second with 12.24 per cent share, followed by the UK with 9.58 per cent share, making Bangladesh, USA and UK, the top three source markets for India in April 2016. The percentage share of FTAs from other source markets like Sri Lanka was 3.71 percent; Malaysia was 3.23 per cent; China was 3.14 per cent; Australia was 3.05 per cent; Germany was 3.02 per cent; France 2.86 per cent; Canada was 2.83 per cent; Russian Federation was 2.81; Japan was 2.50 per cent, Nepal was 2.07 per cent; Singapore was 1.85 per cent and Thailand was 1.61 per cent.

Isra Stapanaseth has been appointed the Director of Tourism Authority of Thailand New Delhi with North & East India, Bangladesh, Bhutan & Nepal as the areas of responsibility. Stapanaseth previously was the TAT Director of Chiang Rai and replaces Runjuan Tongrut who headed North and East India for the past four years. Thailand crossed the one million mark for Indian tourist arrivals in 2015 and registered a total of 1,069,149 arrivals marking a year-on year growth of 14.64 per cent over the same period in 2014, according to data released by the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, Govt. of Thailand. India is Thailand’s sixth biggest source market and the country is aiming for a 10 per cent growth in Indian arrivals in 2016.