Indian industry body moves to use Tetulia in BD as corridor
Saturday, 7 October 2017
SILIGURI: Trade and commerce arena in northern West Bengal is keen to begin Indo-Bangla joint initiative to bring back near forgotten Tetulia corridor issue back to life, according to a report by economictimes.indiatimes.com.
The demand to open up this proposed India to India passage via Tetulia in Bangladesh remained unsettled since independence.
Tetulia will be in our prime agenda to discuss with Chamber and Commerce of Rangpoor in Bangladesh to start joint initiative if possible. We will also talk to our North East Region(NER) friends and escalate it to higher levels at CII and Government in state and centre," said Rajiv Lochan, Chairman of The Confederation of Indian Industry(CII) Chapter for Northern West Bengal.
As estimated, near 50 per cent supply to and from seven states of India's NER uses surface transport via Siliguri.
Tetulia corridor is a proposed 4.0 km long strip of land in Bangladesh to connect Chopra and Maynaguri, both in northern West Bengal.
It can by-pass Siliguri and trim the travel distance for all North-East bound traffic for 84 km "This can save huge amount of time and cost," said Lochan.
On the other side, according to senior defense officials at 33 Corps of Indian Army based near Siliguri, the only link between North-East states hosting Sino Indian border and rest part of the country via Siliguri suffers from serious vulnerability due to challenging geographical boundary.
Indian land, sandwiched between Nepal and Bangladesh, at this part of the country is only 16-60 km wide. Hence, an alternative is too important.
After remaining as demand since independence, Tetulia issue first came under spotlight following India-Bangladesh Trade Agreement signed in 1980.
Article VIII of the agreement says "the two governments agree to make mutually beneficial arrangements for the use of their waterways, railways and roadways for commerce between the two countries and for passage of goods between two places in one country through the territory of the other country."