The Business Statndard 12 July 2020
The trial run of transhipment of Indian goods through Bangladesh to India’s northeastern states will start Thursday using Chittagong Port.
Two routes will be used for the movement of goods.
Once the transhipment begins, India will be able to transport goods to its northeastern states very quickly.
For the first trial run, MV Shejyoti ship with a capacity of 365 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) will sail from Chittagong Port for Syama Prasad Mukherjee Port – formerly Kolkata Port – on Sunday (July 12).
It will set for Chittagong Port on July 16 with four TEUs of container goods.
Then the goods will be transported by road to India via Cumilla’s Bibir Bazar-Srimantpur and Agartala.
Another route that will be used for transhipment is Chittagong Port to Agartala via Akhaura.
Chittagong Port Authority Chairman Rear Admiral SM Abul Kalam Azad told The Business Standard that the first trial run of transhipment of Indian goods will begin on July 16.
“It was supposed to start last March but got delayed due to Covid-19.”
Also, a memorandum of understanding signed by Under Secretary of the Indian Ministry of Road Transport and Highways SK Geeva, on July 8, states that the first trial run of the transhipment will take place on July 16.
Yakub Bhuiyan Sujan, managing director of MV Shejyoti’s agent Mango Line, told The Business Standard that the first trial run of the Indian transhipment will be done through MV Shejyoti.
“We have already made all the preparations. But I will get to know the details of the products later.”
Chattogram Custom House will collect seven types of tariffs on Indian goods.
A letter sent from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh to the High Commission of India in Dhaka, on July 5, set the tariffs.
However, the fees for using roads in line with the policy of the Road Transport and Highways Division has been exempted from the first trial run.
The charges including document processing fee will be Tk30 per consignment, transhipment fee Tk20 per metric tonne, security charge Tk100 per metric tonne, escort charge Tk50 per metric tonne, other administrative charges Tk100, container scanning fee Tk254 per container, and electric lock and seal fee will be charged as per rules, according to the letter.
Chattogram Custom House Commissioner Mohammad Fakhrul Alam told The Business Standard that tariffs on Indian goods would be levied as per government directives.
In October 2018, India and Bangladesh signed an agreement for the use of Chattogram and Mongla ports for transhipment of goods to India’s northeastern states.
Earlier, the Standard Operating Procedures to allow transhipment of Indian goods to its landlocked northeastern states was agreed upon during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to Delhi in October 2019.
