India, Bangladesh to work on land route trade

Decisions to ease truck transit, traffic flow; more steps under discussion.

India and Bangladesh have taken the first major step towards enhancing trade over the land route by relaxing the present practice of unloading trucks at the zero border point. Trucks from both sides would now be allowed to enter 200 metres inside each other’s territories.

To strengthen trade at the Petropole-Benapole border in Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram laid the foundation stone for a new road there to ensure seamless traffic flow on the route, with state-of-the-art warehouses and modern parking facilities for heavy vehicles. The Petropole border is the largest land customs station in Asia.

 

The total cost is around Rs 125 crore and state-run RITES is the consultant. This new stretch would be a bypass road on the present congested one, connecting Benapole to NH35, bypassing Bongaon, the last town in the India-Bangladesh border that is 97 km from Kolkata.

“This would ease congestion and allow trucks to move in a smoother fashion to the Bangladesh side and also to receive the traffic coming from there,” a senior commerce department official told Business Standard. He said both sides were also discussing a Comprehensive Motor Vehicular Agreement, to encourage seamless cross-movement of cargo.

Lack of adequate infrastructure in the trading routes across borders have resulted in major delays and cost overruns. Traffic congestions, delay in handling shipments and increasing storage-dwell times have been major non-tariff barriers for trade.

Enhancement of the land trading route with the installation of proper security measures was on the main agenda discussed during the visit of Bangladeshi prime minister, Hasina, in January 2010. Both sides had agreed to comprehensively address all land boundary issues and announced creation of a Joint Boundary Working Group.

Last month, commerce, industry and textile minister Anand Sharma and his Bangladeshi counterpart, Muhammad Faruk Khan, inaugurated ‘Border Haats’ at Kalaichar in the West Garo Hill district in Meghalaya. It is estimated that bilateral trade worth $20 million will take place annually from the these Haats, which would re-establish the traditional system of marketing local produce.

Bilateral trade has increased from $2.7 billion in 2009-10 to $3.9 bn in 2010-11, an increase of 45 per cent. The growth of exports from Bangladesh to India has also shown an increase from $0.25 bn in 2009-10 to $0.39 bn in 2010-11, says the commerce and industry ministry.

In 2010, India offered a $1-bn line of credit to Bangladesh, the largest ever one-time bilateral financial assistance extended to any country by India.