Passenger ferry service between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka is going to be started. Discussions regarding this have already started between Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe.
This information was published in a report of The Daily Mirror on Thursday (June 13).
According to the report, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka want to start passenger commercial ferry service between themselves. This issue was discussed in the meeting between Sheikh Hasina and Ranil Wickremesinghe in New Delhi on the sidelines of the swearing-in ceremony of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe said this in a message posted on Magic Media X post Wickramasinghe said, "I had a discussion with the Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina after the swearing-in ceremony of the Prime Minister of India in New Delhi. Various issues including development of relations between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, regional cooperation and potential investment came up in the discussion. Sheikh Hasina has promised to help develop Sri Lanka's agricultural system. She also mentioned that Bangladeshi investors will be encouraged to invest in this sector. I will soon send a delegation of Sri Lankan agronomists and experts to Bangladesh to observe the agricultural system in Bangladesh.'
In the X message, he also said, she (Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina) has invited me to the BIMSTEC summit. However, due to the election, Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardene and Foreign Minister Ali Sabri will represent me there.
It is to be noted that the launching of this first passenger ferry between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka is expected to increase tourism and travel between the two countries. The Indo-Ceylon Express ferry operated between India and Sri Lanka until 1982. It was stopped due to the civil war in Sri Lanka. A new ferry between Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu and Kankesanthurai in Sri Lanka was launched in October last year, after nearly four decades of closure in between.