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A New BD-India Land Port to be Opened

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RAMGARH-SABROOM LAND PORT Efforts on to operationalise | Bangladesh | bdnews24.com

RAMGARH-SABROOM LAND PORT
Efforts on to operationalise
Wed, Jan 5th, 2011 7:09 pm
bdnews24.com New Delhi correspondent

New Delhi, Jan 5 (bdnews24.com) – Bangladesh and India have started work to make the Ramgarh-Sabroom Land Customs Station operational, putting in place the necessary infrastructure.

A Bangladesh delegation had been in the northeastern Indian state of Tripura to survey the site of the Land Customs Station, which, despite being notified long back, is yet to be made operational.

They also surveyed the site proposed for the construction of a bridge over the Feni River to link Ramgarh in Khagrachhari district of Bangladesh with Sabroom – a border town in Tripura.

The six-member delegation was, headed by Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Communications Mohammed Mostafa. It also included officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Land, Ministry of Water Resources and Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They were accompanied by an official of the Indian High Commission in Dhaka.

The delegation was on a tour of Tripura from Sunday to Tuesday to discuss with government officials of the Indian State and explore the possibilities of upgrading infrastructure for better connectivity between the two neighbouring countries.

During prime minister Sheikh Hasina's meeting with her Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh in New Delhi in January 2010, the two countries had agreed to make the Ramgarh-Sabroom Land Customs Station operational.

Bangladesh officials also visited two other land customs stations at Srimantapur and Belonia in Tripura. The Srimantapur Land Customs Station will be the biggest of the six such facilities along the Bangladesh-India border in Tripura when its construction on a plot of 16 acres would be completed at an estimated cost of 16 crore Indian Rupees.

Jitendra Choudhury, the industry and commerce minister of the state government of Tripura, said efforts were on to start the construction of the bridge over the Feni River.

He said construction of the bridge would require an estimated cost of nearly 13 crore Indian Rupees. India's central government would provide the fund for building the bridge under its programme to grant assistance to the states for developing export infrastructure and related activities, he added.

The state government of Tripura has already prepared a detailed project report for the 150-meter-long bridge.

The Bangladesh delegation, accompanied by local officials of the state government of Tripura, visited the site of the proposed bridge at Anandapara in Sabroom. They also crossed the river in a boat and went to Mahamuni at Ramgarh on the Bangladesh side of the border and met the local residents there.

They later told their Indian counterparts that the local residents of Mahamuni had showed them a graveyard located near the site of the proposed bridge. They suggested that the bridge might be constructed just 50 meters away from the proposed site to save the graveyard. The Indian officials agreed to consider it.

Choudhury said construction of the bridge and operationalisation of the Ramgarh-Sabroom Land Custom Station would open the much-needed trade lifeline for the landlocked Tripura and other states in northeastern India.

Choudhury met Foreign Minister Dipu Moni and Commerce Minister M Faruk Khan during his recent visit to Dhaka and discussed the construction of the bridge and operationalisation of the LCS.

The sites for the proposed bridge and the Land Custom Station are just about 75 kilometres away from the Chittagong Port.

It was after Dhaka agreed to allow New Delhi to use the Chittagong Port for movement of goods to and from India that New Delhi embarked on upgrading transport infrastructure in Tripura. Apart from the bridge, the Indian government also decided to upgrade the highway linking Sabroom with Agartala, the capital city of Tripura.

The Indian Railways had in 2008 extended the rail-link to Agartala. A project to lay tracks between Agartala and Sabroom is projected to be completed by March 2014.

Bangladesh and India are also working towards implementing the Akhaura-Agartala rail link project, which would be financed by New Delhi.
 
India, Bangladesh open new land port to boost trade​

India and Bangladesh today opened a key joint land port at the northwestern tip of Banglabandha bordering Phulbari of West Bengal to boost bilateral trade.

Phulbari-Banglabandha land port was opened at a cross-border ceremony attended by Indian finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and Bangladesh's agriculture minister Matia Chowdhury.

Two trucks carrying cotton from Bangladesh entered Indian territory, while three stone-laden trucks from India crossed the border into Bangladesh, reports said.

Mukherjee termed the relations between the two countries as historic and said both Bangladesh and India have been working to cut trade deficit.

"Both countries are determined to solve all problems side by side withboosting trade," he said.

He said that Phulbari-Banglabandha land port has more potential than Benapole-Petraploe as it is very close to Siliguri, the gateway to northeast India, Nepal and Bhutan.

Speaking on the occasion, Chowdhury said with the launching of Banglabandha land port the trade deficit between the two countries will come down significantly.

"We hope that the immigration through the port will (also) start very soon," she said.

With the opening of trading through the port, the Indian finance minister said mills and factories will be opened in the region to create employment.


India, Bangladesh open new land port to boost trade - India - DNA
 

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