BENAPOLE: The India-Bangladesh Friendship Cycle Rally has arrived in Benapole on Wednesday.   

Sukanto Sangsad, Sharsha upazila administration, Benapole C&F Agent Association and Jessore Kishor Bahini Obhaththana Committee welcomed the rally at Benapole Check post.

Coordinator of Jessore Kishor Bahini Obhaththana Committee Iqbal Kabir Jahid told baglenes24.com.bd that a reception ceremony and two-day long cultural programme was organized by all cultural and social organizations of the town.

Chief Minister of West Bengal Buddha Dev Bhattacharya formally inaugurated the rally in Kolkata.

Sukanto Sangsad of Bangladesh and Kishore Bahini of Indian jointly organized the rally to mark the occasion of 84th birth anniversary of poet Sukanta Bhattacharya and 150th birth anniversary of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore.

The rally would arrive at poet Sukanto’s ancestral home at Kotalipara in Gopalganj on August 21.

The rally would conclude in Dhaka on August 23.

Some 35 bicyclists from Kolkata are taking part in the rally.

Bangladesh Foreign Ministry and West Bengal Rajyo Sarkar financed the rally.

BDST: 2130 HRS, AUGUST 18, 2010.