Partial road transit to India begins without formal announcementOfficials disclaim giving any such facility

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ACNizam AhmedThe Bangladesh authorities have provided partial road transit to India through extending an existing river transit facility by allowing trucks to enter directly into the Indian territory from a transshipment point in Bangladesh, observers said on Wednesday. Officials in Dhaka, however, disclaimed about giving any formal road transit facilities to India. India is only shipping some goods to India's Agartala landport via Bangladesh's Ashuganj river port under an existing water transit protocol, they said. "It is not road transit at all, but (it is) transshipment under water transit protocol of 1980," Abdul Mannan Howladar, secretary, ministry of shipping told the FE. The protocol allows India to carry goods from transshipment point in Bangladesh to destination in India using Bangladeshi transports, clarified the shipping secretary. India recently started carrying goods to its northeastern states through Bangladesh territory using Ashuganj as new transshipment point under a decades'-old river transit deal between the two countries. A fleet of trucks and lorries carrying machineries and equipments rolled into Agartala landport in India's Tripura state via Bangladesh's Akhaura land-port last Wednesday. The trucks loaded the goods at Ashuganj river terminal late last week after an Indian vessel had carried those to Ashuganj river terminal from a port in India's state of Paschim Banga late last month. As Bangladesh is yet to provide formal road transit facilities to India, transportation of Indian goods from Ashuganj to Agartala created a confusion among different quarters. Because of lack of an official announcement by the relevant authorities and a formal inauguration of providing such facilities to India, the confusion on giving road transit has further intensified. "It is a complete transparency failure on the part of the government arousing great confusion," Hossain Zillur Rahman, a former adviser to the past caretaker government told the FE. "They (government) should have explained how Ashuganj was incorporated only last year in a protocol signed long ago," the adviser said. The government has not also clarified how the nation is going to be benefited by giving allout transit facilities to India, Hossain Zillur added. The inland water transit protocol was first signed in 1980, modifying a bilateral trade agreement of 1972, for keeping the river routes navigable within each territories, officials said. The water transit protocol is scheduled to be renewed in March next year after it was renewed in 2007, 2001 and 1999, the shipping ministry officials said. "Dhaka will seek to realize more money as levy than the Taka 20 million (then $290,000) it gets annually, while renewing the protocol", a senior Finance Ministry official said. Finance Minister AMA Muhith told reporters last Tuesday that the rate of tariff would be fixed by next March. Meanwhile India's outgoing High Commissioner Rajeet Mitter told reporters that India would be ready to pay transit and transshipment fees for using Bangladesh territory. He was speaking after he had made a farewell call on Foreign Minister Dipu Moni in the foreign ministry last Tuesday. Mitter reminded the reporters that the Indian commerce minister during a recent visit to Dhaka had said his government would pay charges according to the international practice. Mitter said the transit deal was alive since it was signed between the two countries in 1980, but it took a new dimension after Bangladesh agreed to allow Ashuganj as a new multimodal port, during a visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to New Delhi in 2010. Under the earlier protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade 1980, Bangladesh's Sherpur was a transshipment point but it was not used much due to lack of logistics support and adequate infrastructure. Later, Ashuganj was selected as a convenient transshipment point for India, Mitter said.