Indo-Bangla trial coastal shipping from mid October

India and Bangladesh are likely to start coastal shipping from mid October this year, a top Indian shipping official said.

An agreement has already been made between the two friendly neighbours to open up sea routes in order to further improve the bilateral trade.

Director-General of Shipping Gautam Chatterjee disclosed at a recent seminar that at a recent ministerial meeting in Dhaka, the shipping arrangements were almost finalised and the trial run may start as early as October this year.

He said it was also agreed that Bangladesh side would draw a draft agreement and the standard operating procedures on the basis of the decisions reached.

Bangladesh officials had asked Indian officials to get IRS to inspect the vessels to meet the vessel standard protocol and according to them there are some 20 vessels from Bangladesh that can meet the Indian standards.

In the absence of direct shipping arrangement; India and Bangladesh are now heavily dependent on costly land routes for the $6-billion bilateral trade.

According to rough calculation coastal shipping may reduce the costs of transportation by 20 to 40 per cent, when compared to rail or road transportation, ensuring greater competitiveness to exporters on either side.

In 2012, both the nations have already identified a number of ports for operating such services.

While the Indian ports include Paradip, Visakhapatnam and Haldia, those in Bangladesh will be Chittagong, Mongla and Pangaon.

There was a difference of opinion on the quality of vessels to be used but it was finally agreed to use of smaller vessels to keep the transport costs low.

While Dhaka wanted major relaxation on fitness of vessels; India insisted that to ensure maritime safety, Bangladeshi vessels should go through the standards set by the Indian Registrar of Shipping (IRS).

After nearly a year of persuasion, Bangladesh recently agreed to the proposal and identified 20-25 vessels for the purpose.

Meantime, Area Manager of Food Corporation of India at Tripura’s capital Agartala, B G Bhuiya told bdnews24 : “At present on trial basis we are trying to get some 10,000 MT of food grain from southern part of India through the river ports and road of Bangladesh to Tripura."

By 2nd August half of the consignment in small vessels is likely to reach Ashuganj port, he said.

"From there Bangladesh trucks shall directly carry the foodgrains to our central warehouse at Nandanager which is around 7 km from the international border. If this is successful then we can increase our intake through sea."

India is also constructing a bridge over the river Feni that will connect Sabroom with Chittagong.

He also informed that FCI is constructing a large warehouse in bordering Shantirbazar area close to Sabroom.

Recently in order to stress the need to improve port connectivity, the newly appointed Indian Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari announced an ambitious plan to double the capacity of 12 major Indian ports from the current 800 million metric tonnes to 1,600 mmts in the next five years.