India has expressed willingness to start transhipment of goods through Ashuganj river-port, and requested an immediate meeting of the joint technical committee (JTC) to settle the relevant issues, officials said.
During the bilateral shipping secretary-level talks in New Delhi on April 20, the two sides agreed to form a joint committee, comprising technical officials, to decide about cargo transhipment through Ashuganj, bank guarantee for transit cargo, and amendment of Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade (PIWTT). The Indian High Commission in Dhaka in a recent letter requested the government to form a joint technical body as well as to sit for a meeting, so that the country can start transhipment of goods as early as possible, sources said.
India wants to tranship goods through Ashuganj river-port to feed its 'seven-sister' states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura.
A senior official at the Ministry of Shipping told the FE that the JTC will be formed with representatives from Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI), Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA), ministries of foreign affairs and revenue boards of both the countries.
He said during August-November 2012 India transhipped, for the second time, over-dimensional cargoes (ODCs) for Monarchak power plant in Tripura through Ashuganj river-port. The first ODCs for Palatana power plant in Tripura was transhipped in 2011.
Bangladesh allowed transhipment of 10,000 tonnes of rice in 2014 from Kakinada port in Andhra Pradesh to Agartala in Tripura through Ashuganj on humanitarian ground.
This year Bangladesh also allowed transhipment of 25,000 tonnes of food-grains to Tripura through Ashuganj, as India sought the facility on the same ground.
The official also said the recent renewal of PIWTT during the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi paved the way for both the countries to carry goods to their own states or third countries using each other's territories.
"India now wants to enjoy a permanent transit and transhipment facility to carry goods to its remote states using Bangladeshi territory." Indian vehicles need to travel 1,650 kilometres to transport food-grains from Kolkata to Agartala via Guwahati.
However, the vehicles will have to travel only 350 kilometres, if they go through Bangladesh's Ashuganj port, he added.
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