August 13, 2020: The proposed Addendum to the protocol to the Transit Agreement between the government of the people’s republic of Bangladesh and the government of the federal democratic republic of Nepal was agreed at the routine weekly chairing a meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Hasina attended the virtual meeting via video conference from her official residence. Alongside bilateral trade with Bangladesh by rail through India, Nepal will move its import and export products through Bangladesh’s Mongla port. While there is the capacity to move commodities using two Indian railways between Bangladesh and Nepal, because of this only a shorter path would be used.
Commerce ministry officials from Bangladesh informed that an upcoming meeting between trade secretaries of the two countries on the 16th of August will address the operation of the rail cargo. The talk would also center on bilateral trade problems, including usages of Bangladesh’s Syedpur Airport and running the Dhaka-Kathmandu bus line. The goods will transport from Rahanpur, in Bangladesh, to Biratganj, in Nepal, via Singabad in Malda and Jasbani in Bihar, India. The overall distance from Rahanpur to Biratganj on this road is 225 kilometres, including 8 kilometers from Rahanpur to Singabad.
There is a potential to operate trains from Rahanpur to Nepal’s Birganj via the Biral-Radhikapur-Bihar’s Raxaul of West Bengal, according to the transit agreement concluded between India and Nepal. But, since this route is 514 km south, there’s little point in using it.
Cabinet Secretary of Bangladesh, Anwarul Islam, after the cabinet meeting, mentioned that under the bilateral transit agreement signed with Nepal in 1976 sought Bangladesh for the rail transit from Rahanpur via India’s Singabad.”Nepal will be able to use this railway to transport goods. We have given Nepal the opportunity to use the ports of Mongla and Chattogram. Along with Nepal, Bangladesh will also benefit from this,” he added.
Per the officials from the Ministry of Commerce, Khulna-Chalna Port, Chattogram Port, Biral, Banglabandha, Chilahati, and Benapole were the ports of call signed with Nepal under the transit agreement, where there was no opportunity to develop rail connectivity.
A trade ministry official from Bangladesh mentioned in The Business Standard that the size of Nepal’s trade with Bangladesh is small. Bangladesh exported products worth $38 million to Nepal in the 2018-19 financial year, compared with an import worth $14 million. Trade would improve when rail cargo between the two countries begins, he explained.
In 2010, during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to India, India agreed to the use of the broad gauge railway connection (Rahanpur-Singabad) as an alternate transit path to Nepal. India officially offered transit facilities to Bangladesh and Nepal via the Indian territories in September of the following year. In 2016, Nepal and India signed a letter of exchange concerning the start of rail transit with Bangladesh via Singabad in India. In April 2019, Nepal submitted a formal plan for implementing rail transport through the Rahanpur-Singabad road to Bangladesh. A draft position paper was prepared in readiness for the August 16 meeting with Nepal at a meeting chaired by Sharifa Khan, Ministry of Commerce Additional Secretary (FTA), on Monday according to the Business Times. It mentions that the draft is in favor of the Dhaka-Kathmandu bus service.
Source: Kathmandu Tribune
