KOLKATA: Prime Minister Narendra Modi , along with his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina , is likely to flag off the first Kolkata-Dhaka-Agartala bus in Dhaka on June 6, probably in the presence of West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee.The trial run for the route will be conducted on June 1. The state as well as the Centre, in coordination with the Bangladesh government, are working on a war footing to streamline immigration and protocol issues.But Bangladesh deputy high commission officials said they were yet to get any official confirmation on Modi’s visit. The proposed bus transit was preceded by hectic meetings on May 18 in New Delhi, where Union minister of road transport and highway Nitin Gadkari met Bangladeshi transport minister Obeidul Quadar, along with a host of officials of the West Bengal and Tripura governments, ministry of external affairs, Customs and the Border Security Force.In a historic step towards sub-regional cooperation, India will, for the first time, will use Bangladesh territory as a transit corridor to reach one of its furthest corners, cutting down on both travel time and distance by one-fourth. From Agartala, it takes over three days to reach Kolkata through a complex route. It would now take less than a day, said a transport officer. The drastic reduction of travel time might open up new vista of trade and commerce in Indian subcontinent.For the Kolkata-Tripura route, the state has proposed to run the services from Kolkata thrice a week, with the buses passing through two Indo-Bangla checkposts, one at Petrapol-Benapole and the other at Akhaura-Agartala. The fare, which is yet to be finalized, is not likely to be more than Rs 2,000.West Bengal Surface Transport Corporation managing director Nilanjan Shandilya said they planned to run 45-seater Volvo buses to Tripura on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from the Karunamoyee international bus terminus in Salt Lake. The return journeys will be on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays with no services on Sunday. According to an official, the 350-km distance till Tripura will take over 15 hours to reach as there will be two immigration and customs checks; for that, passengers will have to wait for over three hours. The officials have estimated the time going by the long hours that Dhaka bus commuters usually have to wait at the Petrapol-Benapol immigration checkpost on the Indo-Bangla border. But foreign officials are exploring ways to reduce the time for the Kolkata-Agartala trips.Transport secretary of Tripura L H Darlong said it was a long-standing demand of the people of Tripura to have a direct bus connection with Kolkata. According to him, Delhi has not yet given the permission to fix a bus route linking Tripura with Kolkata. “But we can start the services now,” he said.Welcoming the move, Tripura high court advocate Suranjan Choudhury, who is now in Kolkata, said, “I had to spend Rs 7,000 for my air ticket from Agartala to Kolkata. The bus services would make travelling much cheaper. When flight tickets were not available, I first had to take a bus to Dhaka and from there, another bus to Kolkata.”Since 1999, the WBSTC has been running bus services to Dhaka; the new route through Dhaka will connect two Bengali-speaking states with a Bengali-speaking sovereign country, said an official. Kolkata-Jessore and Kolkata-Khulna, are also likely to be announced, while a bus route from Siliguri to Dhaka is being considered.