A pact between India and Bangladesh to provide coastal shipping services between the two countries has expanded to include six ports of calls for each, with the addition of Pangaon and Dhubri.
The Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade (PIWTT), signed between the two countries in 1972, saw several amendments, last time renewed in June 2015 for five years, during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Bangladesh.
The protocol facilitates passage of goods between two places in one country and to third countries through the other's territory, according to martime news portal joc.com.
Pangaon Inland Container Terminal joins Bangladesh river ports Narayanganj, Khulna, Mongla, Sirajganj, and Ashuganj in the network, and Dhubri will round out the six Indian ports including Kolkata, Haldia, Karimganj, Pandu, and Silghat.
India has already started to use transit facility by sending cargoes from Kolkata to its seven sister states in the northeast using Bangladesh territory, which helped cut distance and transportation costs drastically.
Maritime news portal joc.com Apart from adding the ports and routes, the two sides are in discussion over amending Article 3.5 of PIWTT where India proposed that Bangladesh will bear 20 per cent of the maintenance cost of Indo-Bangla water transit route.
Under the last amendment of the protocol India had been paying Bangladesh Tk 10 crore ($1.25 million) annually to keep the route navigable.
Besides, India has proposed amendment of Article 15 of the protocol allowing crew members of vessels, possessing a valid passport but having no visa, to embark and disembark at the identified ports of call and bunkering stations in both countries for 72 hours after completion of immigration and customs formalities.
Until now, only a negligible volume of Indo-Bangla trade is being done through waterways, although the duos signed a coastal shipping agreement in June 2015. The treaty came into operation almost a year after its signing following the endorsement of standard operating procedure.
Business circles says poor navigability of the rivers, problems in port handling, and lengthy and complicated customs procedures have kept the potential of using water routes for bilateral trade untapped. They say transportation cost of goods between Bangladesh and India can be cut by $3 per metric ton by shifting the freight from road to waterways.
For bilateral trade, until now, waterways are mainly being used for transporting cement clinker. However, under bilateral transit arrangement India so far transported food grains, steel rods, and over-dimensional cargoes for power plants in Tripura, said joc.com
The two-way trade between Bangladesh and India amounted to over $6 billion. In fiscal year 2015 to 2016, Bangladesh exported goods worth $689 million to India and imported goods worth $5.452 billion from there.
Bangladesh mainly exports woven garments, knitwear, home textiles, agricultural products, frozen foods, leather and leather products, footwear, raw jute, jute goods, and bicycles.
On the other hand, the country imports cotton, cotton yarn, cotton fabrics, vehicles, nuclear reactors, boilers, machinery and mechanical appliances, cereals, edible vegetables, iron, and steel among other items.
