Transit facility to neighbours not before three years

A government-appointed committee has strongly suggested for providing full-fledged transit facilities to neighbouring India, Nepal and Bhutan, only after making the required improvements in the country's existing state of related infrastructures -- roads, railways, waterways and sea- and land-ports. Such improvements may take three years' time, in view of the poor state of such infrastructural facilities in the country. In its report submitted on Tuesday to the government, the committee said the country's infrastructure needs investment of about Tk 500 billion (equivalent to $7.11 billion) for its facelift to cope up with the demand for additional traffic load under a transit regime with the three neighbouring countries. It suggested for at least 15 types of fees and charges under three broad categories for transit cargo, but made no specific recommendation for any rate against the proposed heads. In the case with immediate transit-related facility, the report said the similar facility may be given under the arrangement of transshipment, subject to upgradation of a few roads. "Existing infrastructures will not allow Bangladesh to provide full-fledged transit facilities to neighboring countries within next three years," said the report of the Core Committee that was formed about four months back. The Core Committee, headed by Dr. Mozibur Rahman, Chairman, Bangladesh Tariff Commission (BTC), submitted the report to Finance Minister AMA Muhith at his Hair Road residence. Besides the Foreign and Commerce Ministers, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Advisers Moshiur Rahman, HT Iman and Gowhar Rizvi were present on the occasion. No minister or adviser briefed the newsmen about the outcome of the meeting or stated anything about the content of the report, after the meeting on transit issues. A power-point presentation on the report was made at the meeting, meeting sources told the FE. The government assigned the committee on transit to conduct an extensive study to fix routes and fees, do appropriate economic analysis of the transit facility, and assess the volume of traffic, before operationalising transit facility to India, Nepal and Bhutan. The Committee members included former UN ESCAP director M Rahmatullah, Executive Director of Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Mustafizur Rahman , Vice Chairman of Policy Research Institute and former World Bank senior official Sadik Ahmed and Senior Research Fellow of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) Dr Mohammad Yunus. The report said a total of 17.39 million tonnes of domestic and international cargo is estimated to be involved in transit trade annually through Bangladesh. Establishing the rail connectivity with North East India through Kulaura and Akhaura will take at least three years, the report said. Railway will not be in a position to carry any transit traffic during the initial three years, it noted. It suggested the government to build a separate railway bridge over the Jamuna river for the purpose of transit as the Bangabandhu Bridge has load restrictions and will not be able to cope with the pressure of transit traffic moving across it by railway. The report said it will need two to three years to establish connectivity between North East India and Ashuganj as the transshipment facility for container handling at Ashuganj does not exist now. It said the infrastructure at existing land ports is grossly inadequate to cater to any additional demand at this stage. Separate facilities will have to be built for handling the transit cargo in order to differentiate it from those of bilateral nature, it pointed. According to the estimate made in the report, roads will need Tk 119.41 billion, railway, Tk 320.23 billion, inland waterways, Tk 11.61 billion, the Chittagong port, Tk 17.09 billion, the Mongla port, Tk 27.98 billion and land ports, Tk 2.01 billion to upgrade their existing infrastructural facilities. The report identified seven routes for road, seven for railway and three (with existing two) routes for waterways for transit. The heads of the fees and charges, as proposed by the report, are toll (bridges, ferries, rail and waterways), feescharges for administrative expenses, maintenance fees, fees for excess weight, taxesfees on fuel purchased in the host country, heavy goods vehicle tax, entry fees, parking fees, congestion fees, air pollution fees, fees for damage of nature and landscape, fees for accident and fees for health hazards. On the issue of transshipment, the Core Committee on transit said the country may provide transit facility immediately through transshipment, using Bangladeshi transport or by creating a joint venture Transport Company, with the participation of transport companies of three countries concerned. 'However, commencement of transit using the existing facility will require up-gradation of a number of road sections, including those between Brahmanbaria and Mainamati, Sutarkandi and Sylhet and Benapole-Jessore and Khulna,' the report pointed out. It outlined a number of legal requirements, monitoring and security issues, before going for signing transit agreements with interested sub-regional countries. The issues include enacting legal frameworks and protocols covering the issues like list of prohibited goods, declaring carrying the environmentally hazardous goods illegal, fixing different fees and finalizing the mode of transportation. In its concluding remarks, the report suggested to the government to consider transit as a vehicle towards resolving long-standing bilateral and regional issues with the transit partners. Sources, attending the meeting, said, Muhith asked Bangladesh Tariff Commission (BTC) to identify loopholes, if any, in the existing Inland Water Transport Transit and Trade agreement between Bangladesh and India. He also asked BTC to analyze the prospective benefits for the country under transit agreements with the three countries. "The Finance Minister highly appreciated the report and asked to analyze the benefit perspective of transit," a top policy-maker, who attended the meeting, said. However, a Core Committee member said it will require at least one year to accomplish the task assigned by the Finance Minister. Fees and charges can be fixed at the time of negotiations with contracting countries, he added.