India to carry Northeast essentials through Bangladesh
In a very significant development, the Bangladesh government has
decided to allow India to ferry food grains and essentials for the
mountainous northeastern states via its territory, Assam Tribune
reported on Saturday quoting a Tripura minister.
"After getting the green signal from Dhaka, FCI (Food Corporation of
India) has initiated the process to transport food grains and
essentials for the northeastern states using Bangladeshi port Ashuganj
and roadways connected to the NE," Tripura Food and Civil Supplies
Minister Manik Dey told reporters.
FCI chairman-cum-managing director Syraj Hussain informed this to the
minister at a meeting in New Delhi on Thursday.The FCI has already
floated tenders to select the transporters.
In the first consignment 5,000 metric tonne of rice, wheat and sugar
would be ferried to Tripura from West Bengal's Haldia port via
Ashuganj port in Bangladesh.The essentials would be carried in
association with Inland Water Transport Authority (IWTA) of
Bangladesh.The northeastern states have largely been dependent on
supply of food grains from other states, specially Punjab and Haryana.
Due to shortage of rail wagons, inadequate storage facilities and
various other bottlenecks, the northeastern states have been suffering
from poor supply of food grains for most part of the year,
especially during the monsoon.
During the monsoon (June to September), road transport becomes very
difficult in the mountain regions due to landslides, floods and other
calamities.
Surface connectivity is a key factor as the hilly region is surrounded
by Bangladesh, Myanmar, Bhutan and China, and the only land route to
these states from within India is through Assam and
West Bengal.
For ferrying goods, essentials and heavy machinery from abroad and
other parts of the country, India has for long been demanding land,
sea and rail access to the northeast through Bangladesh, which shares
a 4,095-km border with India.
Agartala via Guwahati, for instance, is 1,650 km from Kolkata and
2,637 km from New Delhi. The distance between the Tripura capital and
Kolkata via Bangladesh is just about 350 km.
Earlier, Dhaka had allowed state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation
(ONGC) to transport over dimensional cargos of the 726 mw Palatana
mega power project in southern Tripura using the Ashuganj port, 40 km
west of Agartala city.
The oversized heavy turbines and other heavy machines for ONGC's
Palatana power project, carried on massive 140-wheeled trucks, had
reached the site from Haldia port in West Bengal after being
trans-shipped through Bangladesh.
http://www.unbconnect.com/component/news/task-show/id-68118
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