Enhancing Indo-Bangladesh border trade
Friday, 21 November 2008
LAND-based trade between Bangladesh and India depended so far only on buses and trucks passing through land ports lying at the border of the two nations. Understandably, the business has been full of hassles, with long line of trucks waiting for days and weeks together. The movement of goods often gets disrupted due to strikes and various other forms of outbursts of socio-political origin either in Bangladesh or in India. But notwithstanding these hassles and uncertainties, the exporters and importers on both the sides of the border still prefer the cross-border trade. The reason is the cost of carrying out the business is cheaper through the land route, because the consignments have to travel shorter distance than it takes on any other route. However, as noted in the foregoing, this easier and cheaper mode of trade transaction, too, is often marred by various kinds of uncertainties.
It is not just strikes or other problems of political nature that comes in the way of smooth trade between the two countries. The infrastructures of the land ports used for the purpose are also weak. So far not much of significance has been done by the governments of the two countries to improve the situation of cross-border trade, the volume of which has also been increasing with each passing day. This is the state of affairs of the land-based trade between two countries not only since the independence of Bangladesh, but even before that. Governments came and went, but the problem has remained largely unattended.
India remains the biggest trading partner of Bangladesh in the region. And of Bangladesh's total import from the international trading partners, consignments from India account for 16 per cent of the trade. Unfortunately, despite the closeness in terms of distance and other aspects between the two neighbours, the cost of business transactions between them has so far remained rather very high. An Asian Development Bank (ADB) report said, between 2001 and 2006, the cost of official trade transactions between the two countries was about US$ 2.0 billion, which is too high according to this multilateral donor. Under the circumstances, it is in the interest of both the countries that the trade between the two neighbours should be made more hassle-free as well as cheaper. Given the existing warm and friendly relations between the two next-door neighbours, there is no reason why the movement of goods and services between them should remain constrained and unnecessarily costlier.
As has been indicated before, the movement of goods and people between the two countries takes place mostly through buses and trucks. Strangely though, the railway network connecting Bangladesh and India has been in existence since the British period. Unfortunately, during the last four decades plus years, the train communications between the two sides have remained stalled. However, since last April, a passenger train service, under the name and style Maitree Express, opened its service between Dhaka and Kolkata through the Gede-Darshana rail route. Meanwhile, the Indian government has come with a proposal to start a container train service between Dhaka and the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The container service will pass through the same route as the one used by the Maitree Express. Delhi's proposal does certainly merit serious consideration, if only in view of the constraints the cross-border official trade between the two countries have all along been facing.
It is worthwhile to note that Delhi has proposed 30 such containers trains to be freighted along the aforesaid railway route using Bangladesh's key and sensitive installation -- the Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge (JMB) -- up to the inland container depot at Dhaka. The government of Bangladesh has meanwhile asked India to provide the design, weight and capacity of the proposed container trains to see if those may suit the JMB's structural characteristics. If everything goes well, the proposed container train service would greatly facilitate cross-border trade between the two countries in terms of volume, cost as well as ease.
It is not just strikes or other problems of political nature that comes in the way of smooth trade between the two countries. The infrastructures of the land ports used for the purpose are also weak. So far not much of significance has been done by the governments of the two countries to improve the situation of cross-border trade, the volume of which has also been increasing with each passing day. This is the state of affairs of the land-based trade between two countries not only since the independence of Bangladesh, but even before that. Governments came and went, but the problem has remained largely unattended.
India remains the biggest trading partner of Bangladesh in the region. And of Bangladesh's total import from the international trading partners, consignments from India account for 16 per cent of the trade. Unfortunately, despite the closeness in terms of distance and other aspects between the two neighbours, the cost of business transactions between them has so far remained rather very high. An Asian Development Bank (ADB) report said, between 2001 and 2006, the cost of official trade transactions between the two countries was about US$ 2.0 billion, which is too high according to this multilateral donor. Under the circumstances, it is in the interest of both the countries that the trade between the two neighbours should be made more hassle-free as well as cheaper. Given the existing warm and friendly relations between the two next-door neighbours, there is no reason why the movement of goods and services between them should remain constrained and unnecessarily costlier.
As has been indicated before, the movement of goods and people between the two countries takes place mostly through buses and trucks. Strangely though, the railway network connecting Bangladesh and India has been in existence since the British period. Unfortunately, during the last four decades plus years, the train communications between the two sides have remained stalled. However, since last April, a passenger train service, under the name and style Maitree Express, opened its service between Dhaka and Kolkata through the Gede-Darshana rail route. Meanwhile, the Indian government has come with a proposal to start a container train service between Dhaka and the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The container service will pass through the same route as the one used by the Maitree Express. Delhi's proposal does certainly merit serious consideration, if only in view of the constraints the cross-border official trade between the two countries have all along been facing.
It is worthwhile to note that Delhi has proposed 30 such containers trains to be freighted along the aforesaid railway route using Bangladesh's key and sensitive installation -- the Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge (JMB) -- up to the inland container depot at Dhaka. The government of Bangladesh has meanwhile asked India to provide the design, weight and capacity of the proposed container trains to see if those may suit the JMB's structural characteristics. If everything goes well, the proposed container train service would greatly facilitate cross-border trade between the two countries in terms of volume, cost as well as ease.