FFFAI organised Womens wing delegation visit to India – Bangladesh Border with an objective to explore opportunities as well as understand challenges especially for the women logistics professionals, the Women’s Wing of FFFAI paid a visit to Petrapole (India in West Bengal)-Benapole (Bangladesh) border on August 6, 2023 which was led by Ms. Chaitaly Mehta, Convenor, Women’s Wing, FFFAI. Delegation consisted of Mrs. Philomena Pereira, Ms. Phoram Sampat, Ms. Rajshree Verma, Ms. Subbhulakshmi, Ms. Rewa Mehrotra, Ms. Anita Juneja, Ms. Suparna Banerjee, Ms. Kinjal Shah and Ms. Anusree Datta and Mr. Vinod Mehrotra.
Sharing her experience on the visit and interactions with the LPAI officials Ms. Chaitaly said, “Women workforce at LPAI constitutes more than 12% of its total employees at this Land Port. The Women Workforce is maximum in BSF followed by Customs, Immigration etc.”
According to Ms. Chaitaly, the purpose of the visit was to understand what differentiates an ICP from an airport to a sea port and ICD, how logistics activities are carried out at an ICP and what exactly is an ICP. Especially, challenges before the women logistics practitioners at a border customs post were the focus area.
The FFFAI Women’s Wing Convenor highlighted some startling facts pertaining to the Petrapole border. She pointed out that Petrapole has recorded largest Cross Border Trade through Land; highest trade for any land border in South Asia; Highest trade for any land border in South Asia; daily influx and outgo of around 8-10 thousand passengers per day; daily cargo trucks in and out 800 to 1000 again the highest for any border trade.
She lauded the LPAI initiatives on digitalisation of international trade via this border. “E-Suvidha Portal launched a couple of months ago has brought down the waiting time from 30-40 days for cargo vehicles to just 48 hrs. In addition, Petrapole has ICEGATE thus docs are being filed online unlike manual before,” Ms. Chaitaly shared.
She also informed that Plant Quarantine and Animal Quarantine offices are located inside Petrapole ICP and Talks with FSSAI are underway. Cold Storage Room facilities are readily available.
Apart from the facilities for cargo to facilitate EXIM trade, a new state of the art Passenger Terminal is being constructed and expected to be operational by December 2023.
