Experts divided over providing transit to India
Sunday, 7 February 2010
FE Report
Experts were divided in their opinions Saturday on the outcome of providing transit facilities to India with one group claiming that the prospect of Bangladesh's gains is slim while others said the country can benefit a lot.
They made the comments at a roundtable titled "Regional Connectivity: Opportunities for Bangladesh" organised by Bangladesh Institute of Planners in the city.
M Rahmatullah, Policy Adviser for Transport Sector Management Reform of the Planning Commission, said, "The transit and regional connectivity could be beneficial a lot if we develop our infrastructure like seaport, road and railway systems."
He said, "A 20 feet container takes at least 30-45 days to move from New Delhi to Dhaka and costs around US$ 2,500 but by railway it could reach the destination in 4-5 days and would cost around $ 850 only."
"Our roads are not suitable for the heavy-weight Indian trucks while some of our rail lines are broad gauze and some are metre gauze. So we need to transform the metre-gauze lines into broad gauze ones for transportation of products. Besides, our seaport is a blessing for us for its natural set-up and what we have to do is just to prepare it."
But he said when he was interested to do research on the possibility of this transit and connectivity issue about 10 years back, he did not get any fund. However, now donors seem to be interested.
He said, "Recent initiatives taken jointly by Bangladesh and India will go a long way to resolve connectivity problem and it would be a win-win situation for both the countries."
Experts were divided in their opinions Saturday on the outcome of providing transit facilities to India with one group claiming that the prospect of Bangladesh's gains is slim while others said the country can benefit a lot.
They made the comments at a roundtable titled "Regional Connectivity: Opportunities for Bangladesh" organised by Bangladesh Institute of Planners in the city.
M Rahmatullah, Policy Adviser for Transport Sector Management Reform of the Planning Commission, said, "The transit and regional connectivity could be beneficial a lot if we develop our infrastructure like seaport, road and railway systems."
He said, "A 20 feet container takes at least 30-45 days to move from New Delhi to Dhaka and costs around US$ 2,500 but by railway it could reach the destination in 4-5 days and would cost around $ 850 only."
"Our roads are not suitable for the heavy-weight Indian trucks while some of our rail lines are broad gauze and some are metre gauze. So we need to transform the metre-gauze lines into broad gauze ones for transportation of products. Besides, our seaport is a blessing for us for its natural set-up and what we have to do is just to prepare it."
But he said when he was interested to do research on the possibility of this transit and connectivity issue about 10 years back, he did not get any fund. However, now donors seem to be interested.
He said, "Recent initiatives taken jointly by Bangladesh and India will go a long way to resolve connectivity problem and it would be a win-win situation for both the countries."