Raheed Ejaz
New Delhi has asked Dhaka to allow transportation of heavy machinery and other equipments from Kolkata to Agartala through Bangladesh’s Ashuganj river port. The cargo will be used to construct a power plant in Tripura state.
The Indian delegation made the request on Monday, the first day of the two-day talks on water transit. Delhi further offered to help build all the required infrastructure on the Bangladesh side for transporting Indian machinery if Dhaka agrees to its proposal, sources told New Age.
After creation of widespread controversies over the issue of giving India transit through Bangladesh, Delhi has apparently shifted its demand to the low-visibility issue of water transit so that there are no political repercussions in Dhaka.
As the two countries are set to renew the Inland Water Transit and Trade Protocol during the talks being held in Sonargaon Hotel, the Indian tried to persuade the Bangladeshi team to include Ashuganj as a new port of call for facilitating transportation of Indian goods from Kolkata to Agartola, said sources.
The Bangladesh team was learnt to have told the Indian side that this was not the forum to provide such facilities and a contentious issue like transit in any form would involve political decision at the highest level.
‘Perhaps, India’s Ministry of External Affairs will put forward the proposal to our Ministry of Foreign Affairs for further discussion. This forum is unlikely to take any decision on such an issue,’ said a source.
The shipping secretary, Masud Elahi, and additional secretary of India’s road, transport and highways ministry, Vijay Chhibber, represented their sides in the negotiations and will renew the above-mentioned protocol on behalf of their governments today.
In the first day of the meeting the Indian side agreed with Bangladesh’s proposal to
increase the money for ensuring the navigability of the eight riverine routes from the present Tk 2 crore a year, and to set up a joint technical committee to find out by how much the money should be increased.
Bangladesh, however, proposed that the sum should be raised from Tk 2 crore to Tk 10 crore annually.
It was also decided at the meeting that India should take the initiative to release six Bangladeshi crewmen who were imprisoned in Alipur jail for a few months due to some procedural flaws after their arrival in India.
The Inland Water Transit and Trade Protocol was first signed in 1980 under the bilateral trade agreement of 1980 for ensuring mutually beneficial arrangements for the use of the waterways for commerce, and for keeping the riverine routes navigable. The protocol was first renewed in 1999, then in 2001 and last in 2007.
Courtesy of NewAge
