Notwithstanding the important role the land ports play in the country's external trade, their problems and weaknesses are not taken care of, with due earnestness by the authorities concerned. Nor the media is interested in highlighting the land ports' problems the way it does in the case of seaports. But businesses, who are the main stakeholders in trade transactions using the land port facilities, made the other day a strong plea for improving and upgrading the infrastructural facilities at the land ports. They also called for introduction of automated system and construction of modern warehouses along with ensuring improved rail and road connections to those.
The land port at Benapole, being the largest of the kind, has greater warehousing and other facilities and it handles more than 80 per cent of the goods traded between Bangladesh and India. But storage facilities at that port are reported to be in a pitiable state. The authorities there have been forced to declare at least six warehouses abandoned because of their dilapidated conditions. Rodents, according to the port users, have been causing extensive damage to goods kept in warehouses. The businesses who prefer Benapole to other ports where the situation is even worse, face many hurdles and are subjected to different kinds of harassment by many service-providing agencies.
With the recent signing of the motor vehicle agreement between the BBIN (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal) countries, the prospect of greater trade transactions in the sub-region has brightened. The trade involving Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal in all likelihood would go up soon, leading to increased activities at some of the land ports located on the borders of these countries. So, it is essential to make available necessary warehousing and other facilities to ensure smooth trade transactions through these ports.
There is no denying that inadequate and outdated facilities create opportunities for the people who are engaged in handling export-import consignments, to land the port-users in troubles. Citing constraints of different kinds, they, in most cases, demand speed money from the latter. Such spending does obviously add to the cost of doing business. However, traders concerned ultimately pass the extra cost on to the consumers. The Bangladesh land port authority, according to one of its directors, has taken up a number of projects for infrastructural development of the land ports.
Resource constraints, however, could hinder the implementation of these projects. Multilateral donors might show interest in bankrolling the projects that would help accrue greater benefits through sub-regional connectivity. Besides, the presence of other relevant agencies, including the National Board of Revenue (NBR), Export Promotion Bureau, Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution and banks at the land ports, is essential. The businesses are willing to import all types of goods through all the land ports that, among others, are equipped with automated duty payment system and modern storage facilities. The demands are legitimate and genuine and the government should ensure the same as early as possible.
