Dhaka seeks details from New Delhi

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Shakhawat Hossain
Dhaka has sought from New Delhi the detail design, weigh and capacity of container train service as two South Asian neighbours are contemplating introduction of container train service, a top Bangladesh Railway official said Sunday.
"We have asked Indian railway authority to let us know detail about the proposed container train service," said BR director general Belayet Hossain.
Dhaka has sought the information as New Delhi proposed to run container train service last month. The proposal came after both the countries resumed a historic passenger train after a gap of 43 years on Dhaka-Kolkata route in April last.
"The information on design, weigh and capacity are essential to clear the country's position," he said, adding that the issue is linked to the Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge and (JMB) its security.
New Delhi proposed 30 containers in every trip from Uttar Pradesh to the inland container depot of Dhaka using the JMB, one of the country's key installations.
Dhaka has to determine whether the Indian container train should be allowed to use the JMB facility and other technical issues before taking the final decision, said the BR official.
The technical issues include air-brake locomotives used in Bangladesh whereas India operates vacuum brake locomotives, he added.
Communication ministry officials said New Delhi proposed the container train service to operate using the same track of Gede-Darshana route, being used by the Maitree Express passenger train between Kolkata, the West Bengal capital and Dhaka.
There is also an unofficial proposal of running a wagon service from Chennai to Shantahar through Gede-Darshana border for transporting the spare parts of cars and motorbikes.
The container train service will be welcomed by the local businessmen as it will reduce both time and import costs of Indian goods, they said.
The country's import from India has been rising in recent years.
Indian goods accounted for nearly 16 per cent of the country's total import of US$ 21.6 billion in the last fiscal. Imports from India totalled $3.4 billion in the fiscal due to the increase in rice imports, according to the Bangladesh Bank.
Others food items, especially, onions and fresh fruits accounted for bulk imports from India. Besides, local industries including those in the fast moving goods, apparel and pharmaceutical sector outsourced raw materials from same country.
The country mainly imports goods from India through Benapole and others land ports.
An Asian Development Bank (ABD) Study said the incidence of transaction costs between India and Bangladesh for about $2 billion two-way official trade is too high during 2001-2006.
Although the transaction costs are falling they are still very high when compared with the developed world or even developing Asia. Therefore, India and Bangladesh need to minimize trade transaction costs by removing visible and invisible barriers to trade.
Countries can tackle transaction costs only through improved and integrated trading infrastructure, which is responsible for faster movement of goods and services across the countries, added the study.