The foreign ministry sent the summary of the proposal to the Cabinet Division on Thursday for consideration by the cabinet in its regular weekly meeting on Monday.

The proposed bus service was scheduled to begin in the first week of this month as per an agreement reached at the Indo-Bangladesh Joint Economic Commission (JEC) meeting held here on July 14-16, but might be delayed due to procedural as well as infrastructure constraints, officials said.

Earlier, the communications ministry submitted the proposal for cabinet's approval last month, but the cabinet observed that the proposal should come from the foreign ministry.

On condition of anonymity, a senior minister told UNB that the proposal required cabinet's approval since it is an affair between the two countries.

But the Indian side unofficially questioned the need for such an approval. The fact that the two foreign ministers agreed about the matter meant it has prior approval of their governments, an Indian official said.

Foreign Minister M Morshed Khan told UNB last month that the commissioning of Dhaka-Agartala bus service was subject to road conditions. Besides, the two sides need to work out details, he said.

He, however, said that since both countries agreed to the proposal, the service would begin sooner or later.