The Agartala-Kolkata bus service via Dhaka, scheduled to begin tomorrow, has been postponed following the assault of an officer of Tripura Road Transport Corporation (TRTC) in Dhaka on Monday.
"Our liaison officer L J Rokhum was in Dhaka on Monday to collect road permit for a new Volvo bus which would ply between Agartala and Kolkata via Dhaka. He was assaulted in Dhaka by some criminals who also snatched the road permit from Rokhum which he had obtained from Bangladesh government," Managing Director of TRTC, Keshab Kar told reporters here today.
The assaulted officer had immediately spoken to by state Transport Secretary Samarjit Bhowmick who took up the matter with the Indian High Commission in Dhaka.
However, Rokhum managed to collect another set of permit and returned here today, Kar said adding that in all likelihood the bus service would be started on October 16.
TRTC had purchased a 45-seater Volvo bus at a cost of around Rs 91 lakh for plying between Agartala to Kolkata via Dhaka, he added.
Kolkata-Dhaka bus service was jointly flagged off by then Prime Minister Atal Vihari Vajpayee and his counterpart Sheikh Hasina on June 19, 1999 and the Agartala-Dhaka bus service launched in September 2003.
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi had jointly flagged-off the Dhaka-Shillong-Guwahati and Kolkata-Dhaka-Agartala bus services during Modi's visit to Dhaka on June 6.
