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India to carry essentials for NE through Bangladesh

UNB, Dhaka
In a significant development, the Bangladesh government has decided to allow India to ferry food grains and essentials for the mountainous northeastern states via its territory, Assam Tribune reported yesterday quoting a Tripura minister.
"After getting the green signal from Dhaka, FCI (Food Corporation of India) has initiated the process to transport food grains and essentials for the northeastern states using Bangladeshi port Ashuganj and roadways connected to the NE," Tripura Food and Civil Supplies Minister Manik Dey told reporters.
Syraj Hussain, FCI chair-man-cum-managing director, informed this to the minister at a meeting in New Delhi on Thursday.
The FCI has already floated tenders to select the transporters. In the first consignment, 5,000 metric tonnes of rice, wheat and sugar would be ferried to TYipura from West Bengal's Haldia port via Ashuganj port. The essentials would be carried in association with Inland Water Transport Authority of Bangladesh.
The northeastern Indian states have largely been dependent on supply of food grains from other states, especially Punjab and Haryana.
Due to shortage of rail wagons, inadequate storage facilities and various other bottlenecks, the northeastern states have been suffering from poor supply of food grains for most part of the year, especially during the monsoon.
During the monsoon (June to September), road transport becomes very difficult in the mountain regions due to landslides, floods and other calamities.
Surface connectivity is a key factor as the hilly region is surrounded by Bangladesh, Myanmar, Bhutan and China, and the only land route to these states from within India is through Assam and West Bengal.
For ferrying goods, essentials and heavy machinery from abroad and other parts of the country, India has for long been demanding land, sea and rail access to the northeast through
Bangladesh, which shares a 4,095-km border with India.
Agartala via Guwahati, for instance, is 1,650km from Kolkata and 2,637km from New Delhi. The distance between the Tripura capital and Kolkata via Bangladesh is justabout350km.
Earlier, Dhaka had allowed state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) to transport over dimensional cargos of the 726MW Palatana mega power project in south-ern Tripura using the Ashuganj port, 40km west of Agartala city.
The oversized heavy turbines and other heavy machines for ONGC's Palatana power project, carried on massive 140-wheeled trucks, had reached the site from Haldia port in West Bengal after being trans-shipped through Bangladesh.