The Hindu Business Line : Containerised traffic between Kolkata port and Bangladesh soon

The barge movement of containerised traffic between Kolkata port (including Haldia) and Narayanganj (Bangladesh) is to start shortly. The container handling facilities at Narayanganj will be in place in next few months. This was revealed at the meeting of the Standing Committee of the India-Bangladesh Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade held in New Delhi recently.

The service, once started, will benefit exporters currently sending their shipments in containers to Dhaka. The importers too, will stand to gain. Right now, the route is circuitous — Singapore-Chittagong-Narayanganj.

A few years ago, some attempts were made to launch a similar service to Narayanganj but not with much success.

Meanwhile, some important decisions were taken at the New Delhi meeting. First, India agreed to pay Taka 4.25 crore every year, up from the present Taka two crore annually, to Bangladesh to maintain the navigability of the river-route used for bilateral trade.

Dredging proposal

As regards the Bangladesh request for Indian assistance on dredging of some of the country’s rivers, India asked for a concrete proposal emphasising that the dredging of the protocol route should receive priority.

Secondly, the tenure of the two-year protocol would be extended to make it co-terminus with bilateral trade agreement having three-year tenure. Lastly, Namkhana in West Bengal and Angtihara in Bangladesh would function as designated points to facilitate bunkering, customs, immigration and purchase of provisions for the vessel crew. Also, there would be joint pilotage between the two points.

The representatives of Bangladesh present at the meeting agreed to provide transit facility at Ashuganj on one time basis to facilitate transportation of over-dimensional cargoes for ONGC’s power project in Tripura. They, it is learnt, declined to consider as of now India’s demand for a permanent facility.

Ports of call

The Indian side, it is further learnt, also indicated considering at a later date the Bangladesh demand for declaring Silghat (Assam) and Badarpur (Assam) as extended ports of call — Silghat as an extension of Pandu and Badarpur as an extension of Karimganj (both Pandu and Karimganj in Assam are at present designated ports of call as approved in the protocol) — for promotion of trade by the river route.

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