Blog

·         North-Eastern States of India to use Chattogram sea port and Mongla river ports in Bangladesh. This will restore pre-partition logistics arrangements, when the North-East was served by the then East Bengal ports.

·         The deal will particularly help Tripura, which is nearly 2000 km away from Kolkata but a few hundred km from the Chattogram port.

·         A cruise service will be launched between Kolkata and Dhaka from March 2019. The cruise operator, Exotic Heritage Group, has already booked the service for five years. Exotic heritage group already runs cruises on River Ganga.

·         Setting up of a multi-modal transshipment hub at Jogighopa in Assam for movement of cargo to Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Bhutan. Goods from Bhutan and the North-East can take the river route to Bangladesh and vice-versa through Jogighopa.

 

Key benefits:

·        Boost for trade, especially for North Eastern states of India which are landlocked and is accessible via the narrow ‘chicken-neck’ corridor.

·        Boost for tourism sector

·        Waterway connectivity will reduce cost of transportation significantly as it is the most economical mode compared to road and railways.