Domar (Nilphamari) Correspondent

Railway Minister Advocate Nurul Islam Sujan said that BNP will not participate in the upcoming parliamentary elections because they beat and kill people and they have no right to ask people to vote for them.

They have done nothing for the people of the country but the Awami League in the country has developed tremendously.

Our Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is the embodiment of development. Awami League Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has built the railway which was destroyed by BNP in a modern way.

Not only railways but all sectors of the country have been affected by development.

He said this while addressing as the Chief Guest at the inauguration ceremony of the newly constructed Chilahati Iconic Station Building in the Attatai project titled Broad Gauge Railway Construction between Chilahati and Chilahati Border with the aim of establishing rail connection with India at Chilahati Railway Station premises of Domar Upazila of the district on Saturday afternoon.

Director General of Bangladesh Railways Kamrul Ahsan spoke as a special guest in the event.

Aftab Uddin Sarkar, Member of Parliament of Nilphamari-1 Constituency, Deputy Commissioner Pankaj Ghosh, Superintendent of Police Golam Sabur, Project Director Abdur Rahim, Chief Engineer of Western Railway Asadul Haque, General ManagerAsim Kumar Talukdar, Upzilla Chairman Tofail Ahmed and others spoke on the occasion.

As a result of the inauguration of the iconic building, immigration will open at Chilahati station, the last railway station in the northern region, hence the Mithali Express train will stop at Chilahati station. Then passengers will be able to go to and from India from Chilahati.

However, the people of the northern region did not get any benefit of this train until now due to lack of passenger boarding and alighting system at Chilahati Station.

From the beginning, there was a demand to start immigration in North Bengal to travel on this train, which established Bangladesh-India communication. Keeping that in mind, the railway authorities decided to construct a modern railway station at Chilahati at a cost of about 15 crore rupees. Local people and passengers are excited about this news that they will get a chance to board Mithali Express from this station very soon.

According to railway sources, 80 percent of the work of the station has been completed so far. The project director Abdur Rahim said that it will take some more time to fully use the station. The station will be opened for domestic passengers first at the earliest. Immigration will be introduced later.

The construction of the iconic building began in 2021. Ticket counter, first and second class restrooms are available for modern passenger facilities. Apart from this, there are offices of various departments to run the railway operations. There are banks and restaurants on the second and third floors of the building.

But the most important is the immigration point. Passengers can travel to Siliguri in India via Chilahati from this station. Till now, passengers from northern region will get that facility from Chilahati, even though immigration is from Dhaka to travel by Mithali Express. As a result, you can reach India's Siliguri within 20 to 25 minutes.

In this regard, Assistant Executive Engineer of Railways Kazi Wali-ul Haque said that there will be customs and immigration facilities within the iconic station building. Besides, there will be restaurant and bank facilities.