Process to set up two new LC stations on border with Meghalaya on

SYLHET, Mar 19: Process for setting up two new LC stations on the Sylhet-Meghalaya border has been going on, informed an official.

Of them one would at Dolura area on the Sunamganj-Balat border in the Meghalaya foothills.

About 10 acres of land would soon be handed over to the Customs Department, an official informed although the initial proposal was for a 15 acre-plot. The location is about 12 km off Sunamganj district town.

However, things are being delayed due to the lengthy process of land acquisition for the station, an official admitted. Now the Land Ministry has asked for reply to some query from the district about the proposed plot of land.

Sources informed both Bangladesh and India agreed to set an LC station on the said area back in 1999, but things didn't precede much due to absence of road on the 2.5 km area on the Indian side at Balat.

Meantime, the Meghalaya authority established road link with the border point for transportation of goods as well as for movement of people.

However, Dolura in Bangladesh side has good road and river transport link with the district town.

Besides, the Cholti river rolls down from the Khasi Hills in Meghalaya to the Sunamganj district and joins the Surma river.

An official told this correspondent yesterday, steps are on to establish the new LC station at Dolura, since there is a good prospect.

Physical works would be visible after the end of land acquisition process, he added. The other LC station would be set up on Meghalaya border at Bijoy Parua area in Companiganj upazila's Ronikhai union.

Indian trade leaders from the region had a view exchange meeting with traders from Sunamagnj on the Dolura borders with the then NBR chairman Md Nojibur Rahman present on February 17, 2017.

The NBR chief assured of taking required steps for setting the much desired LC station as traders from both sides had also expressed their keen interest.

Meanwhile, the Customs department had already rented a structure for performing some important works while the district administration had been working for land at an earliest.

However, a border haat had been in operation on the said border since 2008.

Small traders from the both sides have been running their trade of some selected items on Tuesdays. Poor and middle class buyers from both sides had been benefited from the haat.

There are 14 old LC stations on the Meghalaya, Tripura and Assam frontiers with greater Sylhet region.

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