India and Bangladesh on Saturday ratified a four-decade-old agreement for exchan

ging enclaves to end a dragging border dispute during Prime Minister Narendra Mo
di's official visit aimed at boosting connectivity and trade.
The two countries also launched two trans-border bus services and concluded agre
ements for building power plants to produce 4,600 MW of electricity to help Bang
ladesh overcome an energy crisis.
Officials of the two countries signed and exchanged documents regarding the rati
fication of the 1974 India-Bangladesh Land Boundary Agreement in the presence of
Modi and his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina.
The Indian parliament recently passed a historic constitution amendment bill tha
t paved the way for operationalising the agreement to exchange 161 enclaves. Und
er the deal, 111 border enclaves will be transferred to Bangladesh in exchange f
or 51 that will become part of India. More than 50,000 people will get citizensh
ip after the agreement is implemented.
In a message posted on his Facebook page, Modi wrote:
tershed moment in our ties with Bangladesh.

The ratification marks a wa

History is made as the Instruments of Ratification of the Land Boundary Agreemen

t are exchanged. pic.twitter.com/HHeBhK3prs
PMO India (@PMOIndia) June 6, 2015
Two trans-border bus services
one on the Kolkata-Dhaka-Agartala route and anothe
r on the Dhaka-Shillong-Guwahati route were flagged off by Modi, Hasina and West
Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee during a ceremony in the afternoon. The f
irst service will cut travel time by a third.
The bus services will increase people-to-people contacts and connect the two cou
ntries, Modi tweeted.