Making good on the Bilateral agreement signed four years ago, Bangladesh’s southwestern Mongla seaport will transship the first Indian vessel with cargo, received on Monday, by road to India’s landlocked north-eastern region.
MV Rishad Rayhan showed up from Kolkata Port under a trial attempt of the transshipment under a bilateral agreement on the utilization of Bangladesh’s northeastern Chittagong seaport and the Mongla port for the movement of merchandise from India (ACMP), Mongla Port authorities said.
“MV Rishad Rayhan is the first Indian ship that anchored in our port with goods to be transhipped by road to north-eastern Indian region,” Mongla Port Authority chairman Rear Admiral Mohammad Musa told newsmen.
The ship carrying 16,380 tonnes of iron pipes and 8.5 tonnes of prefoam, was received at a ceremony attended by Indian high commission officials in Dhaka, including Assistant High Commissioner Indrajit Sagar.
However, the very first Indian ship with transshipment goods under the agreement, reached the Chittagong port last month with iron and pulse which were subsequently transported to India’s Tripura and Assam through the Akhaura-Agartala land port.
The nation’s customs authorities and security agencies were overseeing the safe journey of the containers to the Indian border, said Bangladesh officials.
In 2015, the two nations penned down an initial transshipment deal in 2015, which was later in 2018 followed by a detailed agreement, and Bangladesh and Indian officials subsequently developed a standard operating procedure (SoP) for its execution.
According to Bangladesh’s shipping ministry officials, India will run four identical trial runs ahead of the full implementation of the transshipment agreement.
the use of Chittagong and Mongal ports for trans-shipment will cut the 1,200 km long distance between Kolkata and key cities in the northeast to almost half.
This trans-shipment arrangement will facilitate the movement of heavier cargo at a lower cost and also boost business services and the logistics sector in Bangladesh.
