Indo-Bangla connectivity: The role of Tripura

Asjadul Kibria | Published: January 19, 2016 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

Bangladesh's bilateral trade with India is mostly operated through land ports adjoining the borders of five Indian states - West Bengal, Meghalaya, Assam, Tripura and Mizoram. Conditions of most of the land ports and customs stations are, however, poor due to lack of adequate physical and information technology (IT) infrastructure.  There is also a problem as some land customs stations (LCSs) are situated at inappropriate places. Thus, addressing the problems related to land ports and customs stations is a major challenge to enhancing bilateral trade. It is also very much related to regional integration process.
Several studies, conducted by trade experts in both the countries, identify that the low quality of infrastructure in different LCSs, mostly in India, has been troubling the smooth trade flows between the two countries. A study in 2014, conducted by CUTS International, said: "Warehouse facilities, parking facility, cold storage facilities, availability of stationery, goods scanners, weighbridges, etc. are some of the infrastructural issues hovering over the LCSs of Petrapole, Mahadipur, Ghojadanga Hili, Bangaon, Changrabandha and Fulbari." It also pointed out the problem of complex and outdated system of documentation and very slow and time-consuming movement of traffic at most LCSs.
INFRASTRUCTURE MATTERS: Against this backdrop, the inauguration of a new land customs station (LCS) in Tripura last week by the Indian government is an important step. The LCS is a kind of an integrated check-post having facilities of a weighbridge, warehouse, computerised immigration system and banking with currency exchange. It is the second LCS in Tripura and is located at Srimantapur of Sonamura in Sepahijala district of the Indian state. The corresponding station on the Bangladesh side is Bibirbazar Land Port in Comilla.
There is also a plan to construct six more LCSs in Tripura adjoining Bangladesh border. The state government of Tripura has also requested the Indian central government for linking the state's Gomati and Hawrah rivers with the Meghna river in Bangladesh. The construction of a bridge across the Feni river at Sabroom bordering Chittagong is also under consideration.  The idea behind the construction of the bridge is to make a corridor connecting the Chittagong sea port and Tripura in the near future. The distance between the port and the state's border town Sabroom is only 40km.
In fact, Tripura is very much eager for better connectivity with Bangladesh as the state is virtually land-locked. For the last couple of years, Tripura is vigorously pursuing the connectivity issue which will not only be beneficial to the state, but also to the whole north-eastern part of India.
When Bangladesh and India started the process of transit-transhipment in 2009, Tripura was the only state of north-eastern part that strongly supported the initiative while Assam, the biggest economy in north-eastern India, expressed little interest.    
Manik Sarker, the chief minister of Tripura, in a recent interview with The Business Standard, an Indian business daily newspaper, said 'connectivity with Bangladesh is very important' as it would help the state get a big market. "Being a landlocked state, we want to have connectivity to Chittagong port in Bangladesh," he said. "Earlier, we had proposed the Centre to get us linkage with Cox's Bazar (for high-speed internet connectivity) in Bangladesh. Work on this is on and it will be commissioned in January."
Under the terms of the Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal (BBIN) Motor Vehicle Agreement (MVA), a direct link between Kolkata, capital of West Bengal, and Agartala, capital of Tripura, will be established reducing the distance from 1650km, through the 'chicken neck', to 500km.  The Kolkata-Agartala bus service via Dhaka has also been introduced last year.   
Moreover, India has already inked a deal for India-Myanmar-Thailand (IMT) Motor Vehicle Agreement (MVA). It is instrumental for making the Asian Highway (AH-1) functional which is also a part of the IMT Trilateral Highway.  It is a road network of about 3,200 km which will be extended later to link Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.
GENEROUS MOVE BY BD: Bangladesh and India have signed an agreement last week under which 100 MW of electricity will be supplied to Bangladesh from the gas-based ONGC Tripura Power Company (OTPC). Bangladesh has to pay Tk 6.50 (Rs 5.50) for per unit of the power. Bangladesh is also thinking to purchase another 100MW of electricity from the same company, also known as Paltana power station, which has the capacity to produce 726.6 MW of electricity daily.  
It should be noted that Bangladesh provided a generous road and water transit facility to India for carrying Over Dimensional Cargos (ODCs) in 2010 and 2011. A bilateral treaty was signed in January 2010 in this regard allowing India for the first time to use land and water ways of Bangladesh to carry goods to the north-eastern parts from the mainland. A 450-metre-long cross embankment-cum-road beside Akhaura rail bridge was made for transport of ODC carrying heavy equipment to the Paltana power station in Tripura from Kolkata via Brahmanbaria. From Kolkata the ODCs first moved in barges through river route in Bangladesh and reached Ashuganj Port. Then the consignments were unloaded and reloaded to heavy-duty trailers to carry to Agartala crossing 50-km road in Bangladesh (Ashuganj-Akhura). Some 12,000 tonnes of consignments of various dimensions and weight were moved through Bangladesh for the Palatana project.
The repair and development of the road network was, however, funded from the $1.0 billion Indian credit line. India is also financing construction of Akhaura-Agartala rail link as well as construction of a bridge on the Feni river. The development of road and rail network will make the connectivity into reality.
Moreover, the 227-km rail line from Badarpur in Assam to Agartala has been converted into a broad-gauge line from existing meter-gauge line. There is a plan to extend the line to the border town of Sabroom in near future.
Moreover, Bangladesh has provided high-speed bandwidth connectivity from Cox's Bazar.  The 10GB bandwidth of transmission cable from Bangladesh will turn Tripura the third internet gateway after Mumbai and Chennai from the next month.
WHAT CAN BANGLADESH ASK FOR: While generously accommodating India's interest in bilateral and sub-regional connectivity, Bangladesh needs to push for greater regional connectivity. In exchange, Bangladesh should negotiate with India for access to IMT Trilateral Highway.
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