Badrul Ahsan :
The Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade (PIWTT) is on the brink to incorporate new provisions under which Bangladesh has to share 20 per cent of the route-maintenance cost with India.
Under the proposals, India has urged to include Pangaon Inland Container Terminal in Bangladesh and Dhubri river port in India as ‘Ports of Call’, officials at Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) said.
The next door neighbour also proposed amendment to 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 the countries for 72 hours on completion of immigration and customs formalities.
The BIWTA officials said the protocol route is mainly used for carrying Indian cargos. “So there is no justification of maintenance cost sharing with India.”
India has proposed the amendment to the PIWTT before floating an international tender for fairway development of Ashuganj-Zakiganj stretch of Kushiyara River and Sirajganj-Daikhawa stretch of Jamuna River.
The officials said India has been paying Tk 100 million annually since 2013 as maintenance fee to keep the protocol route navigable. Before that it was paying Tk 55 million for the same. Started with only Tk 27,000 in 1972 the amount now reached to Tk 100 million after 41 years.
BIWTA Director Shafiqul Haque has told The New Nation that an estimated amount of Tk 1.53 billion would be needed to dredge the two stretches totaling 500 kilometres of the protocol route over the next seven years.
India will bear 80 per cent of the total expenses while Bangladesh 20 per cent if the Indian proposal is accepted, he said, adding that navigation buoys and lights would also be installed under the project.
Haque said an international tender will be floated soon for the dredging work keeping open the options to carry out the work either by Bangladesh or India alone or jointly.
Both the countries will monitor the work to ensure its quality, he noted.
The BIWTA director further said India pays the royalty for maintenance of two portions of the protocol route through which only the Indian goods-laden vessels ply.
Traffic on river routes is mostly one-way India to Bangladesh in carrying bilateral trade cargo. Fly ash is the single-largest import through river routes.
Replying to a query regarding benefit of incorporating new ‘Ports of Call’, the BIWTA director said the office is examining Bangladesh’s benefit of incorporating Pangaon Inland Container Terminal in Bangladesh and Dhubri river port in India as ‘Ports of Call’.
‘Ports of Call’ is an intermediate port where ships customarily stop for supplies, repairs, or transshipment of cargo.
With this inclusion the number of ‘Ports of Call’ will be six on both sides. Presently, the designated ‘Ports of Call’ in Indian are Kolkata, Haldia, Karimganj, Pandu, and Silghat while in Bangladesh Narayanganj, Khulna, Mongla, Sirajganj, and Ashuganj.
Besides, regarding proposed amendment to Article 15 of the protocol, another BIWTA high official said that 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 the countries for 72 hours on completion of immigration and customs formalities might not poise any threat to our security.
The two-way trade between Bangladesh and India amounted to over US$6.0 billion. In fiscal year 2016-17, Bangladesh exported goods worth around $690 million to India and imported goods worth around $5.520 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 bicycle.
On the other hand, the imports include cotton, cotton yarn, cotton fabrics, vehicles, nuclear reactor, boilers, machinery and mechanical appliances, cereals, edible vegetables, iron and steel.
