Soon after the elections in Bangladesh on December 30, the government will formally give a proposal to India to open a new Deputy High Commission (DHC) office in Chennai.
First in south
It will be the first of Bangladesh missions in South India and the sixth diplomatic office of the country in India.
The mission proposed is another indication of “growing engagement” between Bangladesh and India, officials in Dhaka said.
“Over the last few years the number of Bangladeshi visitors to Chennai has gone up hugely. They are going mainly for medical treatment. Indian IT professionals from mainly Bengaluru and Chennai are also going to Bangladesh in large numbers to work. So the government [of Bangladesh] has principally approved the plan to open another mission, in Chennai,” said Toufique Hasan, Deputy High Commissioner of Bangladesh in Kolkata.
Senior government officials here in Dhaka also confirmed the initiative.
Flight proposed
Visitors from south India now visit the DHC in Kolkata or Mumbai for visa and other travel-related requirements. In view of the increasing flow of visitors on both sides, the Bangladesh government is also mulling over the idea of a Dhaka-Chennai flight.
“It would depend on economic viability and flow of visitors to the Chennai mission,” Mr. Hasan said.
Soon after the elections in Bangladesh on December 30 the government will finalise the logistics of the Chennai mission and forward the proposal officially. “It should be in place by next six to 12 months,” Mr. Hasan said.
New air routes
Bangladesh is also mulling an idea to start a Dhaka-Guwahati flight as traffic has also increased from eastern India. Bangladesh has three missions in the east India– one DHC in Kolkata and two Assistant High Commissions: one in Guwahati and the other in Agartala. Bangladesh has its High Commission in Delhi and a DHC in Mumbai.
Kolkata is the oldest diplomatic office of Bangladesh in India, housed in a stunning old building with Corinthian columns and elements of Persian architecture in South Central Kolkata. Interestingly, the mission was started even before Bangladesh’ victory in Liberation War on Dec 16, 1971. The Deputy High Commissioner of Pakistan in Kolkata M. Hossain Ali raised the Bangladeshi flag on April 17, 1971, eight months before the victory.
According to officials, the heritage house was bought from an Ispahani merchant, who founded Orient Airways in Kolkata, which after 1947 was rechristened as Pakistan International Airlines and shifted to Chittagong in East Pakistan. Eventually the building on Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Sarani in south central Kolkata was transferred to the Pakistan government, which in turn became Bangladesh’s DHC.
“But I am yet to find any formal history of the building,” Mr. Hasan said.
