India revives proposal for Chittagong as transit point

Kolkata: India has revived its earlier proposal for using the Chittagong port as a transit point for transporting goods to and from north eastern India, according to Mr Manik Sarkar, Chief Minister of Tripura. The earlier proposal in this regard did not make much headway due to the lack of co-operation of the Bangladesh Government, Mr Sarkar said.

The Tripura Government had also taken up with the Centre the issue of expediting the implementation of the 130 km-long rail link between Agartala and Sabrum in South Tripura bordering Bangladesh, he said while addressing a press conference organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Eastern Region.

“We’re ready to bear 15 per cent of the project cost”, he said.

The Agartala-Sabrum rail project, already announced in this year’s Rail Budget, would take three to four years to complete.

The construction of a bridge on the Feni River flanking the India-Bangladesh border would reduce the distance between Sabrum and Chiitagong to 72 km, the Chief Minister said, pointing out that the opening of the Kolkata-Dhaka-Agartala route by road through a double visa permit would also benefit trade in addition to bringing down the distance from 1,600 km to 350 km, vis-À-vis the route via Guwahati.

“Tripura can act as a gateway to the North-East if these projects are through”, the Chief Minister observed. “The Centre has offered to the Bangladesh Government to fund the construction of road in Bangladesh to connect to Chittagong but what has been lacking is the cooperation of the Bangladesh Government”.

These initiatives, he said, follow from the concerns of termination of proposed projects for lack of infrastructure in the state.

“A number of MoUs signed for big projects have not fructified lately. My apprehensions have led me to ask investors to come with smaller investment packages first rather than big ones. We have also realised that infrastructure holds the key to the success of such projects,” he emphasised.