Sending food grains to Tripura: BD to ‘allow river route’ port use

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UNB, Dhaka :
Bangladesh has agreed to allow its close-door neighbour India to use Bangladesh’s river route and Ashuganj river port to help send foodgrain supplies to landlocked Tripura from mainland India.
The two countries have already reached a consensus of sending the first consignment of 10,000 metric tonnes of rice to Tripura on an ‘experimental’ basis, reports BBC Bangla on Monday quoting senior Tripura government officials.
If the trial goes successful, Tripura will continue to get foodgrains via Bangladesh in the next few months.
Meanwhile, The Indian Express in a report said landlocked Tripura is set to get its foodgrain supplies from mainland India through sea, land and river routes via Bangladesh.
Such a move was necessitated with the monsoon rain lashing the state will be likely a six-month ‘mega block’ of the only rail link between Guwahati and Agartala from October.
The Food Corporation of India (FCI) will send 10,000 tonnes of foodgrains – rice and wheat – as a pilot from Andhra Pradesh to Tripura via Bangladesh.
The transportation is likely to take two weeks and if the “experiment works well”, then the process will continue for eight months.
Saumitra Bandopadhyaya, special secretary and director of food and civil supplies in the Tripura government, said the Ministry of External Affairs has already worked out the formalities with the Bangladesh regime to carry out smooth movement of the first consignment of 10,000 metric tonnes of foodgrain.
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