SYLHET, July 10: Process for setting 2 new LC stations in Sylhet-Meghalaya frontier region has been going on, informed an official.
Of them one would at Dolura area on the Sunamganj-Balat border in the Meghalayan foot hills. 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 the Sunamganj district town.
Sources informed both Bangladesh and India agreed to set an LC station on the said area back in 1999, but things didn't proceed much due to absence of road on the 2.5 km area on the Indian side at Balat.
Meantime, the Meghalayan authority established road link with the border point for transportation of goods as well as inhabitants mobility. However, Dolura in Bangladesh side has good link with the district town through road and through river. Besides, the river Cholti rolls down from the Khasi hills in Meghalaya to the Sunamganj district to join the Surma river.
Contacted Commissioner of the Customs, Excise & Vat, Sylhet Md. Shafiqul Islam told this correspondent yesterday, steps are on to establish a new LC station at Dolura, since there is a good future. Physical works would be visible after the end of land acquisition process, he added. The other LC station would be set up on Meghalayan border at Bijoy Parua area in Companiganj upazila's Ronikhai union.
It is statable here that the Indian trade leaders from the region had a view exchange meeting with traders from Sunamagnj on the Dolura borders with the then NBR chairman Nozibur Rahman present on 17 February last year. 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 had already rented a structure for doing 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 both sides had 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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