Air fares between Dhaka and Kolkata have surged as patients and businessmen have started coming to the city from Bangladesh in large numbers.
Passengers, tour operators and airlines said the one-way fare from Dhaka to Kolkata was more than Rs 20,000 on some days, compared with the usual fare between Rs 6,000 and Rs 8,000.
Hospitals said while patients from Bangladesh had started returning to their outpatients departments, after a long pandemic-induced gap, the numbers were still low as many were waiting for air fares to come down or train services to resume.
