India looks at resuming Bangladesh bus, rail link 'after Eid'

India is looking at resuming cross-border bus and railway services with Bangladesh "shortly after Eid", External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Thursday.

Jaishankar said this while making a press statement in Dhaka, where he met Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Foreign minister A K Abdul Momen.

Bangladesh PM's spokesperson Ihsanul Karim Hasina told PTI in Dhaka that Hasina underlined the importance of connectivity between the two neighbours and offered her country's main seaport  Chittagong Port to India's landlocked northeastern states such as Assam and Tripura.

She told Jaishankar that the enhanced connectivity was needed for mutual benefit, while it would particularly benefit India's northeastern region in using Chittagong port, Karim said.

She said that initiatives were taken to resume cross-border routes between Bangladesh and India which were stopped during the 1965 India-Pakistan war, when Bangladesh was the eastern wing of Pakistan.

Karim said several bilateral and international issues were discussed during Prime Minister Hasina's more than half-an-hour-long meeting with Jaishankar.

Jaishankar said he expects early commissioning of new projects with Bangladesh in different sectors, including power, energy and connectivity.

Jaishankar said India would continue to take the lead to structure progressive partnerships of production, transmission and trade in this region.