Bangladesh eyes Indian ports for external trade

In this regard, Bangladesh wants to use ports on the Indian east coast which have better water draught and mother vessels can dock there. In the next week. a Bangladeshi team comprising port experts, trade experts, exporters and importers, and shipping ministry officials will visit Indian ports, such as the port of Chennai in Tamil Nadu, Visakhapatnam and Krishnapatnam ports in Andhra Pradesh, and Haldia and Kolkata ports in West Bengal, to check the commercial viability and technical feasibility of using these ports.

Bangladesh presently uses regional transhipment ports in Singapore, Colombo, and Malaysia to send and receive its export and import cargoes. Feeder vessels to and from Chittagong and Mongla ports carry the inbound and outbound cargoes as there is no deep-sea port in Bangladesh for mother vessels to dock. If found viable, the Indian ports will open a new window for external trade by cutting time and costs as they are closer to Bangladesh compared to the regional hub ports. If it is decided to use the Indian ports, Bangladesh will be able to send the cargo by road as the two neighbours have long land boundaries between them.

Officials are concerned that after returning from India they will submit a report to the shipping secretary of the government elaborating the pros and cons of using the ports of neighbouring countries for carrying out external trade.

After that, the decision will be forwarded to the Indian authority for their approval and finalise modus operandi. India has been granted permission to use Bangladeshi seaports, Chittagong, Mongla and Payra, to carry goods to its landlocked states in the northeast. Moreover, it has been permitted to use Bangladesh’s roads and rail infrastructures to transship goods to the seven sister states Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Meghalaya, Shillong, Tripura, and Mizoram.