Transport in Bangla districts is almost normal
According to A Staff Reporter, Transport and communication in all districts of Bangladesh are almost normal according to Sheik Abdul Aziz, Transport and Communication Minister of Bangladesh.
Mr. Aziz said in an interview in Calcutta on Thursday that telephone connections between the districts had been restored, and Dacca could be connected by phone from 49 of the 54 subdivisions. Postal services had been resumed in all the districts except Sylhet, he added.
The Minister arrived in Calcutta by air from Dacca in the afternoon. He had been accompanied by the Joint Secretary of his ministry Mr. Nurul Islam. At the airport the Minister was received by his wife and children beside a number of people from Barisal, Khulna, Faridpur and other districts who had earlier evacuated to India.
Mr. Aziz said that Calcutta-Dacca road and rail links were almost complete. Though the Ferry on the Padma to Goalundo could not be operated as the fleeing Pakistani army had submerged a couple of steamers there, a diversion 10 miles south of Goalundo at Mohanpur was now ready to ferry goods and passengers across the Padma, he added. On the Dacca-Chittagong route traffic had resumed partially.
The Minister estimated that by another couple of months the Hardinge bridge over the Padma would be ready for road and rail traffic. For the present ferries would operate from Paksi (Padma and Bheramara Kushtia). Khulna, he said, has already been linked up with north Bengal.
The Minister will visit Rabindranath’s birthplace at Jorasanko, Netaji Bhavan and will pay his respect on bahalf of Bangladesh people to the poet Kazi Nazrul Islam today.
Reference: Hindustan Standard, 07.01.1972