India-Bangladesh transit facility becomes operational

16 June, Kiolkata

India-Bangladesh transit facility, under the revised Inland Water Transit and Trade Protocol, becomes operational Thursday. It was signed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Dhaka in June last year.

A ship from Kolkata carrying 1000 tonnes of steel and iron sheets reached Ashuganj river port in Bangladesh last night.

From there it will transit throughout Bangladesh territory to reach its destination in Tripura. The transit facility with provision of third country access was formally inaugurated this morning in Ashuganj by Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan in the presence of Indian High Commissioner Harsh Vardhan Shringla.

The Kolkata-Ashuganj-Tripura transit through a river route and land route crossing Bangladesh territory cuts the Kolkata-Agartala distance via Siliguri’s ‘chicken neck’ from 1600 km to 800 km.

The reduced distance cuts the transportation costs from mainland India to the northeaster region from 67 US dollars to 35 US dollars per tonne, and the time from 30 days to just 10 days. India pays transit fees of 192.25 dollars per tonne as negotiated between the two countries.

With the formal inauguration of the transit facility between India and Bangladesh, both friendly neighbours sharing a strong historical and cultural bond have crossed yet another milestone in their bilateral relations.

The Kolkata-Ashuganj-Tripura tranist route gives mainland India easier and cheaper access to the seven northeastern states. The revised Inland Water Transit & Trade Protocol under India-Bangladesh Bilateral Trade Agreement gives India and Bangladesh the right to each other’s territory for transiting goods to third countries.

Bangladesh can thus use Indian territory to transit goods to Nepal and Bhutan while India can access Myanmar via Bangladesh. The protocol facilitates trade and development not only between India and Bangladesh but in the entire sub-region facilitating trade and development in the sub-region.