Seaports to be developed for use by India, Nepal, Bhutan

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Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina speaking at the press confce. — PID photo

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told the media personnel Saturday that Bangladesh would soon take initiatives to prepare and develop the Chittagong and Mongla sea-ports and also its road and other related infrastructures "for movement of goods to, and from, India through road and rail", report agencies.
Large investments will be required for the purpose and also to make the same facilities available to Nepal and Bhutan at the both sea-ports of Bangladesh, she added.
Replying to a question at a crowded press conference held at the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), Sheikh Hasina said: "We will take initiatives to prepare and develop the Chittagong and Mongla ports so that India, Nepal and Bhutan, can start using them this year."
About imperatives for connectivity, the prime minister noted that Bangladesh "in this age cannot keep its doors shut".
She said: "At present we are using only 40 per cent of the capacity of the Chittagong ports. If we can maximise the 100 per cent use of them, we will be significantly benefited." In case of Mongla port, the utilisation of capacity is much lower than that of the Chittagong port, she added.
The Prime Minister said that the use of the port facilities at Chittagong and Mongla by India and two regional countries -- Nepal and Bhutan, would help fetch a significant amount of revenue earnings. The projected figures about such earnings will be clearly known when the facilities become operational for the would-be regional user-countries, she added.
At the press conference, she also dilated on an important power agreement. "India will provide us 250 MW of electricity. Talks were also held for constructing a joint power plant."
"We also called upon India to take initiatives to stop killing of BDR personnel and innocent Bangladeshis on the border," Hasina said.
Highlighting the major outcomes of her first visit to New Delhi after the assumption of responsibility as the head of government following the general election held on December 29, 2008, the Prime Minister observed that only friendship among the countries in this region could greatly help South Asia fight its common enemy -- poverty.
"You can get many things through the friendship (with neighbours), which you can't get through enmity . . . I am not the person to pick up quarrels with anyone while the countries in the region need intensified cooperation to help alleviate poverty," she told the press conference, two days after her return from New Delhi.
Asked for comments on opposition allegations that she had "compromised the national interest" during the visit to New Delhi, the Prime Minister said, "I have succeeded in my mission and Bangladesh's interests have been protected in full".
"Opposing India is nothing new in Bangladesh; we are familiar with the anti-India campaign since 1954 elections . . . it became a habit of some people and we have nothing to do about it," Sheikh Hasina said.
The prime minister said she would continue to do whatever is "justified and good for the people of the country", defying the unfounded criticism by the opposition.
Besides Foreign Minister Dipu Moni, the press conference was also attended by the leaders of the Awami League-led grand alliance including ex-president HM Ershad MP of Jatiya Party, Samyabadi Dal leader Dilip Barua, Workers Party leader Rashed Khan Menon MP and Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) Hasanul Haque Inu MP.
Asked if a national consensus could be sought before making commitments on issues of utmost importance as far as India was concerned, she said the stand of her government on such issues is based on peoples' mandate and her party had clearly spelt out those in its last election manifesto.
Sheikh Hasina said the opposition "expected me" to return with concrete results on several issues including the sharing of waters of the common rivers "but while in power they did nothing to settle these issues".
Making a stout defence of her understanding with Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on offering the facilities of Bangladesh's two seaports to India alongside Nepal and Bhutan, he said it would pave the way for regional trade connectivity, besides earning "huge revenues for the country".
Sheikh Hasina pointed out that one of the major successes of her visit to New Delhi related to obtaining Indian 'nod' in allowing its territory for Bangladesh's road links with Nepal and Bhutan, though India "is otherwise considered to be interested only in bilateral arrangements on all issues".
Replying to another question seeking her comment on opposition fears that Bangladesh might lose the two ports to India, she said they had made such allegations when her previous Awami League (AL) government had signed the Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace accord ending more than two decades of tribal insurgency and also the Ganges water sharing treaty with India.
"They had said India will expand its territory up to Feni, but it remains to be an integral part of Bangladesh . . . the opposition leader has been elected to Bangladesh parliament from a Feni constituency and she (Khaleda Zia) has not become a member of the Indian parliament," she said.
Sheikh Hasina said that a meeting of the Indo-Bangladesh Joint River Commission (JRC) would be held "immediately" to address sharing of waters of the common rivers. The issue of bilateral maritime boundary also will be sought to be settled without delay, she added.
The Prime Minister said her Indian counterpart reassured her that they would not undertake any project which could harm Bangladesh. The meeting of the technical committee and the secretary-level talks, have already been held, she noted.
In replies to questions, she recalled the issues of the Teesta and the Tipaimukh did not emerge overnight and the Flood Action Plan (FAP) documents of the early 1990s, too, had reference to the cross-border Tipaimukh structure but the past Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-led four party alliance government "uttered nothing" then on the issues.
She said if the previous government had done something on the matters, "we could have carried forward the process to a large extent . . . as the governmental process involves a continuing process," Sheikh Hasina stated.
She regretted that the successor BNP-led government had scrapped 99 projects undertaken by her previous Awami League (AL) government, after the change of power in 2001.
Dhaka and New Delhi inked three treaties on security and terrorism, cross border crime and mutual legal assistance and two memoranda of understanding on power swapping and trade links, besides agreeing on other issues including offering India the port facilities in Bangladesh in a joint communique.
The Prime Minister during her nearly 45-minute press conference cited from the Rabindranath Tagore's Gandhari and national Poet Kazi Nazrul Islam's Sabyashachhi while responding to questions.
"I am the victor today," she said referring to her "success", protecting the country's interests in full.
When asked about the opposition allegations of "selling" out the country's interests, she said "We have liberated the country at the cost of the blood of millions . . . my father, mother and brothers have sacrificed their lives for the country. So, Sheikh Hasina can not sell out the country's interests.
"Bangladesh's interests have been fully secured," she stated.
At the press conference, the Prime Minister gave a brief resume of AL's achievements since coming to power a year ago.
She said one of her government's achievements had been a turnaround of Bangladesh's 'negative image' abroad into a positive one, by combating corruption and militancy over the past one year.
Hasina said the government would move very fast to upgrade the Chittagong and Mongla ports to these of the international standard.
The prime minister urged the opposition to return to parliament and place their criticisms before the House.
Among those AL leaders present at the press conference were its advisory committee members, Suranjit Sengupta, Amir Hossain Amu and Tofail Ahmed, and presidium members Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim and Obaidul Kader. Those from the cabinet included, among others, Local Government Minister Syed Ashraful Islam, also the AL general secretary