Cement came first
A new riverine waterway link has commenced operations between India and Bangladesh. The two countries want to promote goods transport on waterways more and to this end have now renewed a 48-year-old agreement.
The Indian state of Tripura stretches deep into Bangladesh; 856 of its 1018 km of borders are with the latter country. It doesn’t come as much of a surprise then that ties between the Indian federal state and its neighbouring country are close. In future these connections will additionally be reflected more strongly in the inland navigation network.
Although a ‘Protocol for Inland Water Trade and Transit’ (PIWTT) has already been in place between India and Bangladesh since 1972, waterway transport options haven’t really get off the ground yet. Last year, around 3.5 million t of goods were transported on the routes covered by the protocol. The focus is particularly on India’s northeastern regions, which have no access to the sea.
In order to boost inland waterway transport volumes between the two countries, the two national agencies involved extended the PIWTT in May, so that it now includes more routes and ports. These include a link between Bangladesh’s Daudkandi district and the Indian town of Sonamura, on the Gomti river in Tripura. This 93 km river route was used for a freight service for the first time at the beginning of September. The inland barge MB Premier set sail from Daudkandi with 50 t of cement on board, reaching Sonamura two days later.
Big welcome by VIPs
The head of Tripura’s state government, Biplab Kumar Deb, and the Indian high commissioner for Bangladesh, Riva Ganguly Das, welcomed the barge on arrival. Chief minister Deb pointed out that riverine transport has great potential in this region, as “rivers allow lower transport costs, and it can also have a positive impact on other northeastern states.
Some additional work on infrastructure adjustment is still needed on the Bangladeshi side of the transport link, in order to ensure continuous operations. Bangladesh hopes that the new connection will improve opportunities to export building materials from the country, particularly cement.
