Source : India com
Huge Diplomatic Success : Bangladesh gives India access to 2 important ports Chattogram and Mongla giving a huge setback to Beijing
New Delhi: The Sheikh Hasina-led government of Bangladesh, in a landmark decision, has given India access to Chattogram and Mongla ports for transit and trans-shipment of cargo vessels. This move would cut time and cost significantly for the transport of goods to India’s northeastern states and West Bengal and push regional connectivity in Bay of Bengal.
This decision by the Bangladeshi government is also significant as it comes ahead of the announcement of an Indo-Pacific policy that will enable wider cooperation between New Delhi and Dhaka.
Economic Significance
The Chattogram port, which is the main port in Bangladesh, handles more than 90 per cent of the country’s foreign trade. Mongla is the country’s second largest seaport on the Bay of Bengal.
Now, cargoes can be transported from Chattogram and Mongla ports to Agartala in Tripura via Akhaura, Dawki in Meghalaya via Tamabil, Sutarkandi in Assam via Sheola and Srimantapur in West Bengal via Bibir Bazar.
The same routes can be used to transport commodities from the northeastern states to the two ports, as per officials quoted by Economic Times. This comes in the backdrop of Japan’s role in constructing Matarbari deep seaport in Cox Bazar District of Bangladesh.
The permanent access comes after almost 5 years after the 2018 bilateral pact was delayed due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, officials from Dhaka said. India and Bangladesh had signed an ‘Agreement on the use of Chattogram and Mongla Ports for Movement of Goods to and from India’ in October 2018 and finalised the standard operating procedures for operationalising the pact a year later.
The two countries tested the use of ports for transshipment of cargoes extensively over the past year after the pandemic had subsided. The first trans-shipment trial took place in July 2020 when a load of iron rods and pulses was transported from Haldia port near Kolkata to Chattogram port in southeast Bangladesh and then shipped across the land to Tripura. Bangladesh gives India access to 2 important ports Bangladesh gives India access to 2 important ports Bangladesh gives India access to 2 important ports Bangladesh gives India access to 2 important ports Bangladesh gives India access to 2 important ports IgMp
