Agartala 16 August : In the course of the trial of Assam-bound goods, the Kolkata port were transported to Tripura via Bangladesh’s Mongla port on Tuesday, signalling the opening of a new avenue of collaboration between Bangladesh and India. A top official of the Tripura Industries and Commerce Department said that cargo in containers with pre-foam (in 270 cartons) arrived at Srimantapur integrated Checkpost (ICP) at Kolkata’s Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port (SMP) via Bangladesh’s Mongla port.
The cargo was transported to the western region of the Tripura’s Srimantapur ICP from Mongla port via road, and then transferred to its place of destination in Silchar in the southern part of Assam.
The test run was conducted prior to the launch of an agreement regarding the use of Bangladesh’s Chittagong and Mongla ports by India for transport and trade that involves mountainous northeastern states.
India and Bangladesh signed an Memorandum of Understanding on June 6, 2015 to make use of Chattogram and Mongla ports to facilitate the movement of Indian merchandise through Bangladesh.
Following the MoU the two countries signed an Agreement regarding the utilization of Chattogram as well as Mongla Ports for movement of goods as well as a Standard Operating Procedure (for implementation of the MoU) was signed also on the 5th of October the 5th of October, 2019.
Four exit and entry points are listed in the agreement: Agartala and Srimantapur (Tripura), Sutarkandi (Assam) and Dawki (Meghalaya).
The official stated that currently only 25 items are permitted for export, however all items are permitted to be imported into Bangladesh via Srimantapur ICP.
The amount of trading of Srimantapur ICP is of 13.62 crore.13.62 crore.
In light of the growing demand for imports of fish, the Central government has decided to take the the initiative to provide the services of Animal Quarantine in Srimantapur ICP to ensure that the the import of fish from this ICP occurs, the official said.
Following the arrival of the goods from Kolkata to Srimantapur ICP The Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Pratima Bhowmik and the Tripura’s Industries and Commerce Minister Santana Chakma and Indian and Bangladesh officials were there.
Agartala via Guwahati is just 1,650 km from Kolkata via road and 2,637 km away from New Delhi while the distance between Agartala and Kolkata via Bangladesh is only 620 kilometers.
If the basic necessities, diverse machines and goods are transported from various parts of India to the northeastern states of the mountains via Bangladeshi ports and roads on the surface it will save time and costs for transportation.
The Chittagong international sea port in Bangladesh is located at 75 km from the southern region of Tripura.
The business community viewed that the initiative could aid to increase business flow along inland waterways through the Indo-Bangla protocol.
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