Indo-Bangla trial coastal shipping likely from Oct

India and Bangladesh are likely to start coastal shipping from mid October this year, a top Indian shipping official has said.

An agreement has already been made between the two friendly neighbours to open up sea routes in order to further improve the bilateral trade.

Director-General of Shipping Gautam Chatterjee disclosed at a recent seminar that the shipping arrangements were almost finalised at a recent ministerial meeting in Dhaka and the trial run might start as early as in October next, reports bdnews24.

He said it was also agreed that Bangladesh side would draw a draft agreement and the standard operating procedures on the basis of the decisions reached.

Bangladesh officials had asked Indian officials to get IRS to inspect the vessels to meet the vessel standard protocol and according to them there are about 20 vessels from Bangladesh that can meet the Indian standards.

In the absence of direct shipping arrangement; India and Bangladesh are now heavily dependent on costly land routes for the $6 billion bilateral trade.