Land port loads to double by 2013

Government officials expect the volume of goods trucked into Bangladesh to more than double by 2013, with eased transhipment with India, Nepal and Bhutan, they said last week.

Volumes may exceed 10 million tonnes a year, up from the 4.1 million tonnes now crossing 10 land ports, the shipping ministry officials said, with 15 land ports slated to be in service.

Five land ports, now out of service, are expected to come on stream, and the infrastructure of six is to be upgraded.

The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) slated nearly Tk 40 crore to improve Benapole Land Port infrastructure, said Irtiza Ahmed Choudhury, a member of the Bangladesh Land Port Authority.

A proposal to buy two straddle carriers, four mobile cranes and 13 forklifts awaits shipping ministry approval, he added.

Choudhury said a Tk 982 crore low-speed track for Birol Land Port in Dinajpur was approved by Ecnec in April of last year, as was the current upgrade of the metre-gauge Parbatipur-Kanchan-Panchagarh rail link to broad-gauge tracks.

Four of the five land ports to be developed are: Teghamuk in Rangamati; Ramgarh in Khagrachari; Haluaghat in Mymensingh; and possibly Belonia in Feni. (Belonia, a land port announced last year, was slotted on land disputed with India, so is delayed.)

"We will soon select a separate land for the [Belonia] port and initiatives to develop infrastructure will be taken immediately after acquisition of the land," said Choudhury.

Darshana in Chuadanga was to be the fifth, but it has no road link with India. "The shipping ministry is working on a proposal to set up the land port in Jiban Nagar instead of Darshana," he said.

The Ramgarh and Teghamuk customs stations of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) may become land ports if the shipping ministry is approves the proposal. Haluaghat still has no customs station, Choudhury admits, but he expects approval of Gobramukh and Koraitali as customs stations. Haluaghat improvements are the next priority.

-Daily Star