Petrapole is the Indian side of Petrapole-Benapole

Benapole

Benapole is a township in Sharsha Upazila in the Jessore District of Bangladesh. The Petrapole Customs station of India is situated across the border and since 1971 , a large number of people have travelled between Bangladesh and India through Benapole Customs station...

 border checkpoint

Border checkpoint

A border checkpoint is a place, generally between two countries, where travellers and/or goods are inspected. Authorization often is required to enter a country through its borders. Access-controlled borders often have a limited number of checkpoints where they can be crossed without legal...

 between India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 and Bangladesh

Bangladesh

Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...

. It is also referred to as Haridaspur border check post.

Location

Petrapole is in the district of North 24 Parganas and is about 95 km from Kolkata

Kolkata

Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...

 on the National Highway 35

National Highway 35 (India)

National Highway 35 or NH 35 runs from Barasat to Petrapole on the India–Bangladesh border. It links to Benapole in Bangladesh. Earlier, the road from Dum Dum to Jessore was called Jessore Road...

. The nearest town and passenger rail head is Bongaon.

Significance

Petrapole border is the only land port in south Bengal. It is also the largest land customs station in Asia. According to study by RITES, the goods traffic is approximately 400 trucks per day both ways, while the 2006 passenger traffic was about 1,159 people per day (both incoming and outgoing). The total traffic in 2029-30 has been projected as 2,938 trucks per day and the passenger traffic by then will be 3,924 people per day.

Communication

The Petrapole-Benapole rail link was opened in 2001 after being closed for 26 years. There is a proposal to construct a by-pass road to ease congestion on the present road, connecting Benapole to NH 35, bypassing Bangaon.