One-way traffic or not

A couple of news items published in two different Bangladesh dailies Sunday last did have the necessary contents to evoke a few logical questions about the seriousness of the authorities here to secure trade facilities from neighbouring India.
The first news item, headlined, '912 more tonnes of rice going to Tripura', said a ship carrying 912 tonnes of rice had reached Ashuganj river port last Saturday afternoon. The transshipment of rice to the Indian state of Tripura was scheduled to start Sunday last using local trucks.
The consignment of rice is a part of 35,000 tonnes of the commodity that Bangladesh had agreed to allow transshipment to Tripura without any fees and charges, using the Ashuganj port under the 1972 river protocol agreement with India. Last year, 10,000 tonnes of rice were transshipped in two instalments.
The other news item, front-paged by an English daily, related to the sending a letter by the Bangladesh government requesting its Indian counterpart to include a new transit provision in the current bilateral trade agreement for ferrying goods to neighbouring Nepal and Bhutan.  The agreement is due to expire next Thursday.  New Delhi, reportedly, is yet to respond to the request.
The Bangladesh request to grant such a transit facility is nothing new. It had made similar request to India on a number occasions in the past. But India has been lukewarm, always.
This time, on the eve of the renewal of the agreement, the government has decided to make a fresh request. However, all depends on the sweet will of the Indian government.
The importance of transit facility in the case of external trade of Bhutan and Nepal has gone up manifold since the bridge over the mighty Padma is soon going to be a reality. Both Bhutan and Nepal would be able to make the best use of the Mongla port for the purpose of their external trade because of the bridge.
Allowing the respective vehicles of Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal to carry goods to and from each other's territories using the Indian land would largely boost trade between these countries.
The distance between Bangladesh and Bhutan and between Bangladesh and Nepal is not that long. Yet because of the absence of transit facility through India, Bangladesh's trade with Nepal and Bhutan has been small and its neighbours have always enjoyed surpluses barring one or two years.
Bangladesh's export to Nepal until three to four years back had been around 7.0 to 8.0 million US dollars as against import valued between $ 45million and 64 million.  The trade situation with Bhutan is even worse. Bangladesh's annual export to Bhutan ranges between 1.0 and 2.0 million dollars while the import from that country is well over $25millon.  But the fact remains Bangladesh has all the potential to beef up its exports to both the countries, provided it gets transit facility through India.
Now one obvious question that would agitate every mind here is: why is not India granting unhindered access to Nepal and Bhutan over its land when Bangladesh has been showing enough of goodwill gesturers to it (India)?
For instance, Bangladesh had allowed transportation of heavy equipment for the Palatana thermal power plant in Tripura using the Ashuganj port. Even a temporary road was built across the river Titas to facilitate the transportation of the equipment.
Similarly when India had made a request to allow the transshipment of 35,000 tonnes of rice to Tripura, Bangladesh obliged in the interest of good neighbourly relations.
There is no denying that the two neighbours are now paying greater attention than before to the tasks of improving relations. Bangladesh has a number of major bilateral problems with India, Teesta water sharing, land boundary agreement (LBA) and high trade deficit being at the top of its agenda.
India has been assuaging the Bangladesh worries saying that it has been trying its best to address at least the problems concerning the Teesta water sharing and the LBA. True, without the consent of the Passchimbango government, it remains difficult for the Indian central government to address the issue in a desired manner.
As far as trade is concerned, non- and para-tariff barriers do still hurt the prospect of beefing up Bangladesh exports to India. The Indian government in recent years has tried to remove a few of those, but Bangladesh exporters do complain about hurdles on the ground.
Notwithstanding the efforts the Indian government has been making to remove the irritants in its relations with Bangladesh, most Bangladeshis--- rightly or wrongly---have developed a feeling that the goodwill gestures their country was making towards the giant neighbour India is more or less a one-way traffic. India does need to dispel the misgivings, if there is any.
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