Chilahati Land Customs Station

Flag hoisted every morning although shut for 7 years

31 October 2009, 17:00 PM

EAM Asaduzzaman, Nilphamari

Chilahati land customs station has remained virtually shut for the last seven years although a national flag is hoisted there every day.Photo: STAR

Chilahati land customs station in Nilphamari district has been lying inoperative for over seven years following closure of Holdibari land customs station by India, much to the sufferings of both Indian and Bangladeshi travellers and businessmen. The Chilahati-Holdibari route between Bangladesh and India was closed down after Indian authorities decided to shut the Holdibari land customs station in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal in June 2002. Following repeated requests from the people in Nilphamari and adjoining areas, the authority of Chilahati land customs station situated at Bhogdaburi of Domar upazila in Nilphamari formally requested the Indian land port customs authority to take necessary steps to reopen the station considering its utility to the travellers of both the countries. But the Indian authorities are yet to make any positive response in this regard, station sources said. The people of Nilphamari and other adjoining districts have been demanding reopening of the route through bilateral talks. A large number of Bangladeshi citizens from the district and adjacent areas go to India to meet their relatives and for business, treatment and other purposes every day. Besides, about one lakh Urdu-speaking people now living in Syedpur town in Nilphamari, mostly descendents of the refugees who came to the then East Pakistan from Bihar in India, travel to India frequently to meet their relatives. But after closure of the Holdibari customs station, these people need to detour a long way to use Burimari checkpoint in Lalmonirhat, opposite to Indian Chengrabanda checkpoint, to go to India, adding to their travel cost. "During my visit to India last year, the business community of Jalpaiguri in West Bengal requested me to persuade Bangladesh government for negotiating with India to reopen the Chilahati-Holdibari transit route," said Mostofa Azad Chowdhury Babu, president of Rangpur Chamber of Commerce and Industries. Re-opening of this route will help a large number of people of Panchagarh, Thakurgaon along with Nilphamari district who make frequent visits to India for business and other purposes, said Abdul Wahed Sarker, president of Nilphamari Chamber of Commerce and Industries. At present a customs inspector, a female MLSS, two guards and a peon are posted at Chilahati checkpoint. Peon Farid, who is a resident of the area, told newsmen that now his duty is to hoist the national flag daily while the four other staffs stay at Syedpur and Nilphamari offices as they have practically no work at Chilahati. Life would return to Chilahati-Holdibari transit route, which had been in use since partition of the sub-continent in 1947, if India resume operation in Holdibari land customs station, said locals. During their visit to West Bengal for business and personal purposes in September, a group of businessmen and travellers from the district met the business community and elites of Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar districts and Shiliguri subdivision, Nilphamari Chamber president Abdul Wahed Sarker said. The Bangladeshi people requested the Indian businessmen to talk to their concerned authorities for reopening the Chilahati-Holdibari route. Motaleb Hossain, the inspector of customs posted at Chilahati land customs station, said the Holdibari land customs authority in West Bengal did not officially inform their counterpart at Chilahati whether they had permanently stopped its activities on this route. Earlier on several occasions, his office at Chilahati sent messages to its counterpart in Cooch Behar and Holdibari for restoring the land customs activities but they are yet to respond, he added.