India's request for providing a stretch of land for the upgradation of the Agartala airport has apparently caught Bangladesh government off guard.
"We have held a series of meetings in the last few months, but no concrete decision could be taken" a senior official of the foreign ministry told the FE.
According to the official, India wants a small patch of land amounting to roughly 150 square yards from Bangladesh to instal perimeter fences and landing lights.
"After receiving the proposal from India we have sought opinion of the civil aviation ministry. Though they said that they have reservations to meet such request, they sought detailed and technical proposal on the issue" the official who is familiar with the inter-ministerial correspondence, said.
During the last couple of days, several ministers and top bureaucrats of the country expressed their reservation to such proposal when they were asked to comment on the issue.
Expressing his personal opinion on the issue, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal recently told the media that Bangladesh should not give any land to India.
Visibly skipping the issue Foreign Minister Dr AK Momen said, his ministry did not receive any formal proposal from Indian side.
Senior officials of the civil aviation ministry also expressed their unwillingness to accept the proposal.
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) plans to upgrade the Maharaja Bir Bikram Airport, which is about 20 kilometres from Tripura's capital city Agartala, and roughly one kilometre away from the Bangladesh border.
Officials from both sides told the media recently that the issue is likely to come up during the Indo-Bangladesh home ministry level meeting to be held in New Delhi on Wednesday.
However, quoting officials in the Ministry of Civil Aviation in New Delhi, the Indian media reports that Bangladesh has informed India that it is considering the proposal favourably.
"Even now, aircraft approaching the existing runway fly low over Bangladeshi territory before landing. Both the primary and secondary runways start just a few metres from the zero line of the international border and both have to be lengthened to their south and south-west. For that, land would be required from Bangladesh," a senior civil aviation ministry bureaucrat told a Indian news magazine 'Swarajya'.
The bureaucrat said that a concrete and revised proposal will be handed over to Bangladesh shortly.
"We will propose that Bangladesh gives us the land on long-term lease. Bangladesh has also sent feelers saying it wants to be part of the project so that traders and travellers from eastern Bangladesh can also use the airport. We are open to that," said the bureaucrat.
Former Union home minister Rajnath Singh (who is now the Defence Minister) made this proposal to Dhaka during his visit there in July 2018. Bangladesh requested India for a formal and complete proposal, including detailed maps of the land in Bangladesh it wants for the airport expansion.
According to the magazine, serving and former ministers of the ruling Awami League in Bangladesh opined that the Indian proposal can pass muster only if a joint venture is proposed with Bangladesh.
"There will be a terrible outcry in the country if any land is proposed to be handed over or leased outright to India. The opposition will raise a hue and cry that the government will find hard to ignore," a former civil aviation minister of Bangladesh who did not want to be named, told the Indian magazine.
Defending the proposal Indian officials pointed out that there is a precedent for this as India leased out the Tin Bigha Corridor to Bangladesh in 1992.
"The lease for this corridor, measuring 0.16 million square feet, is in perpetuity and allows Bangladesh unrestricted and round-the-clock access through Indian territory to Dahagram-Angarpota enclaves. So there is a precedent for this and we expect Bangladesh to respond favourably to our proposal," a senior bureaucrat in the Ministry of Home Affairs who has been involved in pushing the Indian proposal for land for the Agartala airport told the Indian media.
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