India seeks permission to use Chittagong port

India has sought permission from Bangladesh for using the Chittagong port as transit point to transport its goods from the mainland to the land-blocked Seven States.

The proposal that reached the Shipping Ministry of Bangladesh acouple of months ago sought permission of using the country's mainport to transport goods through the Agartala land port in India, The Financial Express quoted a high official of the shipping ministry as saying on Monday.

The existing shipping protocol between the two next door neighbors does not allow India to use either land or sea port facilities of Bangladesh in transporting its goods from one part to another.

According to the daily, the shipping ministry that sought opinions from concerned ministries like finance, commerce, foreign,defence and planning on the issue has already received their opinions.

Most of the ministries showed positive attitudes towards the Indian intention, as it will enable the Chittagong Port Authority as well as the customs department of the National Board of Revenueand the land port authority to enhance their income.

They, however, favored putting conditions like that of trination gas pipeline project to maximize the benefit out of suchpermission, the official said.

The official said India has even showed willingness to invest on infrastructure development between Chittagong port and Agartalaland port to transport the goods to its seven states smoothly.

Experts said that India intends to use the Chittagong port as transit points for getting better access to its seven northeast states known as "Seven Sisters", which are geographically almost isolated from other parts of India.

If Bangladesh allows India to use the Chittagong port, the carrying cost and time for Indian goods to reach the region will come down to one third from the existing cost and time, the experts said.

The Seven Sisters, comprising Asam, Nagaland, Tripura, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh, have a population of 38.6 million (about 3.8 percent of India's total) and border China, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar.

Source: Xinhua