The home ministry seeks mandatory scanning of incoming goods and persons at seaports before their entry into Bangladesh under a proposed coastal shipping agreement with Myanmar, officials said. The deal is part of a move for waterway connectivity with littoral countries.
After examining a draft deal prepared by the Ministry of Shipping (MoS), the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) has made the recommendation to block entry of illegal firearms and explosives, they said.
"To avoid entry of illegal weapons and explosives modern scanning machines can be installed at the entry point of seaports," the ministry said in its opinion.
A senior official at the MoS said the government is giving importance on establishing coastal shipping connectivity with the littoral neighbours-India, Myanmar, the Maldives and Sri Lanka-for promoting trade and tourism.
Under the plan, he said, the government wants to sign coastal shipping agreement with these neighbours and likes to start talks immediately.
The official said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina gave approval for the initiatives taking into consideration the prospect of trade and tourism among the littoral neighbours.
He said the Prime Minister also considered reaping the benefit from blue economy after winning in maritime disputes with India and Myanmar through which a significant area was added into Bangladesh's sea territory.
Meantime, Bangladesh and India last year signed coastal shipping agreement and were about to make formal start of the shipping service.   Â
As part of government's move to start trade and tourism connectivity with the seashore neighbours the MoS has prepared the draft of coastal agreement and standard operating procedure (SoP) and sought opinion from ministries concerned.
Sources said the MoHA also opined for making mandatory producing health certificate by ship captains and crews at ports stating that they are not infected by viral diseases. Â
syful-islam@outlook.com
Scanning at ports sought to block arms as deal with Myanmar soon
Syful Islam | Published: February 23, 2016 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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