Govt to set up 4 new land-ports to facilitate cross-border trade

FE Report The government will set up four new land-ports in the country's northern, eastern and western border areas to facilitate more cost-effective and expeditious export-import trade with India, officials said. The Ministry of Shipping (MoS) sent a detailed proposal for the purpose to the Indian government last month to get clearance from its counterpart, a high official of the MoS told FE this week. Earlier, the Ministry got its proposal endorsed by the Law Commission and also obtained the permission from the National Board of Revenue (NBR), they added. The land-ports are proposed to be set up at Jibannagar in Kushtia, Mujibnagar in Meherpur, Chilahati in Nilphamari and Teghamuk in Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT). Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan told the FE that the government would like to set up the new land-ports, as part of an infrastructural development master plan. He said the Bangladesh Land Port Authority (BLPA) has already acquired the land that will be needed for the ports. The BLPA placed the proposal before the MoS last year. The BLPA officials expect that if all legal issues are sorted out and approved by the governments of Bangladesh and India, the authority can launch the work for setting up the land-ports by June this year and can complete the same by the next year. "The preparatory works have already been completed. We can start construction work soon after getting the approval," said BLPA member (development) Tapan Kumar Chakrabarti. Currently, the country has 18 land-ports, of which only nine are in full operation. The other nine ports are not fully functional for lack of necessary infrastructure facilities. The BLPA earlier handed over six land-ports to private operators, in line with the policy-decision of the government. The government is furthermore considering to privatise three more ports this year under Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) arrangement for 25 years to give a boost to cross-border trade, officials said this week. The land-ports that have already been transferred through open tenders include Sona Masjid in Chapai Nawabganj, Hili in Dinajpur, Banglabandha in Panchagarh, Bibir Bazar in Comilla, Birol in Dinajpur and Teknaf in Cox's Bazar. The ports that will be handed over to private operators in the second phase are Bhomra in Satkkhira, Akhaura in Brahmanbaria and Burimari in Lalmonirhat. The country's land-ports, according to some concerned quarters, lack in the required facilities. This has been hindering smooth cross-border trade, they noted. Bangladesh's bilateral trade with its immediate neighbour India is largely dependent on the land-ports. Nearly 60 per cent of the Bangladesh-India trade takes place through such ports, the BLPA statistics showed.