DS: How do you explain opening up of Bangladesh's port facilities to India, Nepal and Bhutan?

MR: It is trading in transport services, making use of spare capacity of the seaports. It is like trading in commodity, as recommended by the World Trade Organization (WTO). It is not leasing out the ports to any country. Bangladesh will handle the total container movement. India will use the ports for her northeastern states, while Nepal and Bhutan will have an opportunity for exporting and importing goods.

Port service is a resource, like any other natural and human resource or commodity, and Bangladesh will use its spare capacity and earn revenue, with charges for transit, port, road, and rail facilities. The recent joint communique issued by the prime ministers of Bangladesh and India has opened up avenues for the use of port services in Bangladesh, which is bogged down with trade deficit and export limitations with India.

How much capacity do Chittagong and Mongla ports have to handle foreign

freights and do business in services?

At present, Bangladesh makes use of only 60 percent and 25 percent of the total capacity of Chittagong and Mongla ports, respectively, as per estimates of the port authorities.

It implies that Bangladesh can sell off the remaining 40 and 75 percent of the services of the two seaports. Chittagong port handles one million 20-foot freight containers per year, of which 70 percent are destined for Dhaka. Bangladesh railway carries only 11 percent of the cargo.

What improvement in quality is required to trade in port service?

The handling of additional foreign freight should be done in a disciplined and organised manner. Port users will not be interested if operations are messy. Bangladesh has to enhance the ports' capacity with efficient management and equipment to make them sustainable. This requires investment in strengthening the infrastructure and capacity building. The private sector may be involved in managing the ports, keeping the author-

ity and ownership in the hands of government.

What are the overall measures that Bangladesh has to take?

Establishing the required transport linkages for freight movement is a big task in making trade viable. We have to carry out a detailed assessment of how much of the port facility and handling capacity is sustainable. We have to ascertain where we need investment for development of assets, management efficiency and training for human resources. Labour discipline is a must to make the ports of international standard to sell its services. Absence of this will just ruin the ports’ productivity.

What should be the modes and means of transportation for increased freight movement?

Cargo movement has to depend primarily on the railway if the distance is above 300 km. Truckloads of cargo, getting stuck in congestion, will not do. The existing Dhaka-Chittagong rail link is single-track. It has to be made double-track to carry the enhanced volume of cargo containers.

Bangladesh railways carry only 11 percent of the cargo. The rest is carried in trucks. If the railway carries more it will decrease the load on the roads. Until the railway links are established and capacity is enhanced, Bangladeshi trucks will do the job, for the time being. Two projects are now ongoing, financed by the ADB and WB, to make them double-track.

Should freight movement be through transhipment or transit?

There is no other alternative other than transhipment, at the moment, unless and until direct road and rail links are established for transit. TYanshipment is the carrying of goods from the ports to the borders with our own transport. It can start immediately with an assessment of traffic volume. It may be beneficial for Bangladesh, but disadvantageous for port users as it is not cost-effective. The gauge difference in the railway link between two countries also makes transhipment the only way of carrying freight. Transhipment has to be done in sealed-off covered vans, as the Meghna-Gomoti Bridge is not fit for carrying containers.

What are the proposed rail routes for freight movement?

The Chittagong seaport is supposed to serve the north-eastern part of India, comprising the states of Assam, Monipur, Meghalaya and Tripura. Most of the Dhaka-Chittagong railway is single-track. Making it double-track from Chittagong to Akhaura, and then single track, will be good enough for carrying loads to the north-East. The Chittagong-Akhaura-Kulaura-Mahishashan-Karimgonj rail link can be operational with the restoration of the Kulaura-Mahishashan section. The construction of a 14 km Akhaura-Agartola railway link will help to connect to the Chittagong port. The two railway links connecting Nepal with Bangladesh are the Birgonj-Rauxul-Katihar-Singhabad line and the Partbatipur-Birol-Rdhikapur-Jugabani-Biratnagar line. The railway link through Rohanpur (Bangladesh)-Singhabad (India), Kathihar-Raxaul (Nepal) to Birgonj in Nepal is within 1000 km from Khulna in Bangladesh. There is no railway route for Assam and Meghalaya.

Meanwhile, New Delhi, on January 12, assured Dhaka of the speedy implementation of rail infrastructure upgrade projects for the Rohanpur-Singhabad link from Bangladesh to Nepal through India, and making the Akhaura-Agartala line operational with the construction of a 14 km track.

What are the road routes? How sound are they?

There are three road exit and entry points for the north-east of India — Akhaura-Agartola, Tamabil-Shilong-Gwahati and Sylhet-Sutarkandi-Karimgonj. The third will be a shortcut for Bangladesh to go to Myanmar. However, the roads we have at present are two-lane, and we cannot allow Indian trucks to run on them because they do not have that capacity, they are heavier and bigger. The existing road infrastructure is structurally very weak, including the Chittagong-Akhaura-Agartola road link. Until it is strengthened, transhipment with our own transport is the option for cargo movement.

Chittagong to Tamabil is the route used for freight movement to and from

Assam and Meghalaya (Gwahati and Shilong). Sylhet- Sutarkandi- Karimgonj -Mahishashan is a shortcut route and has to be opened for freight movement to Monipur and Nagaland.

The Mongla-Thimpu connection has only one road route option with allO km transit through Indian territory. Burimari-Changrabanda-Joygaon-Phuntsholing-Thimpu is the route to Bhutan. The road link for Banglaband (Bangladesh) -Fulbari (India) -Kakorbhita (Nepal) to join Kathmandu has a 22 km transit through Indian territory.

A joint venture transport company of India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan may be instituted, with dual registration and majority stake belonging to Bangladesh. It will minimise the cost of transhipment; as such, dedicated transport vehicles will ply across the border. Where can Bangladesh get investment to build road and rail links?

One billion dollars committed by India for Bangladesh will be a source of investment in communications infrastructure development. Another source of investment will be local and foreign private sectors. Investors will profit from the investment over aperiodof time. Trade in services is a different business.

How can Bangladesh ensure security aspects of such cross-border freight movement?

We will check foreign freight containers with scanners. Chittagong port already has scanners. No government authority can move contraband items across a foreign land.

Goods will move in the containers, or in sealed-off covered vans, and will be subject to customs checking at the time of transhipment. That apart, the water transit route has been in place between India and Bangladesh since 1972, and that has not created any problems yet. Where else lies the potential for Bangladesh?

There are captive markets for Bangladesh in the north-east of India. If trade and business boost up in the north-east because of the port services, it will open up a larger market for Bangladesh in the

region.

Natural resources and minerals of the North-East and Tripura are underexploited. THpura will start exploiting its rubber resource once its gets access to Chittagong port.

It will generate large exports, enhance its purchasing power and draw Bangladeshi products. Port facilities will facilitate the natural resources exploitation in the north-east. Bangladesh can take part in this exploitation of natural resources and industrial development with labour and capital. The north-east will get cement, garments, plastic prod-ucts and hand tube wells from Bangladesh.

How can Nepal and Bhutan benefit from the port facilities?

Bangladesh has offered port facilities to Nepal and Bhutan for third country trading.

If India agrees, Nepal can take this opportunity to make use of its 22 km transit through Indian territory, and Bhutan its 110 km transit through India.

Nepal uses the Kolkata port for 2 million tons of export-import at present. Bhutan uses it for less than half a million tons of trade. Both volumes of trade are likely to move to the Mongla port, as the Kolkata port is heavily used, congested and suffering from siltation.

The distance to the Mongla port is approximately the same as for the Kolkata port for Nepal and Bhutan.

Can water transit be useful?

BIWTA has built container terminals at Pangaon and Khanpur and will develop a similar facility at Chittagong port. A part of the port containers will move through BIWTA container terminals and a big part by railway. One water transit route between India and Bangladesh is Karimgonj-Bhairab Bazar-Narayanganj-Mongla-Kolkata and the other is Gwahati-Patgaon-Narayanganj-Aricha-Mongla-Kolkata.

What about the Ashugonj port?

India wants Ashugonj as a port of call from Kolkata to carry oversize machinery to set up a power plant in Tripura, using water transport through the given water transit route.

Bangladesh will charge a fee for its Ashugonj -Agartola transhipment service. What are prospects of the railroad connections for regional connectivity? How can regional connectivity help Bangladesh?

Major routes of the connectivity will be part of the Asian Highway. Regional connectivity will make Bangladesh a well-connected and open country, and facilitate economic integration, greater regional trade and investment. It will encourage neighbouring countries to develop our deep-seaports. Bangladesh alone cannot afford an investment of six billion dollars for our deep-seaports.