Aiming to start full-scale use of Bangladesh's Chittagong and Mongla seaports soon, India wants to conduct four trial runs of transhipment next month, officials say.
Recently, the Indian High Commission in Dhaka wrote to the shipping ministry expressing willingness to complete the trial runs in August.
In October 2018, Bangladesh and India signed 'Agreement on the use of Chittagong and Mongla ports for movement of goods to and from India' mainly to provide transhipment facility to India to carry goods to its northeastern states.
Thereafter, the first trial run under the deal was conducted in July 2020 with four containers loaded with iron rods and pulses transported from Haldia port in Kolkata to the Chittagong seaport.
Later, they were sent to Tripura and Assam by road using Akhaura land port.
Officials say India is now showing eagerness to start regular use of Chittagong and Mongla ports as soon as possible. On the other hand, Bangladesh side wants the beginning of the regular use of the ports by India once all the requisite procedures are completed.
A shipping ministry official told the FE that an inter-ministerial meeting has been called for July 19 to get updates from the ministries and departments concerned to know whether or not they are fully prepared to implement the agreement.
A decision on holding the trial runs will be held based on their preparations, he said.
However, another shipping ministry official said Dhaka stood ready for the transit piloting by August.
He said the National Board of Revenue (NBR) had already finalised the required standard operating procedure (SOP) which will be issued soon.
"As Bangladesh has not implemented the e-lock system, Indian cargoes will take escort services during the transit time," he adds.
India is eager for regular transit as its vehicles need to travel over 1,650 kilometres to transport goods from Kolkata to Agartala through Guwahati in the landlocked north.
If goods are transported through using Chittagong and Mongla ports, the travel distance is cut down to a few hundred kilometres, thereby lowering required time and transportation costs.
As per the agreement Indian traders have to pay Tk 30 as document-processing fee (per chalan), transhipment fee Tk 20 (per tonne), Tk 100 per tonne as security charge, escort charge Tk 50 (per tonne), miscellaneous administrative charge Tk 100 (per tonne), container-scanning fee Tk 254 (per container), and electric lock-and-seal fee (as per rules).
