Kolkata port to conduct trials for maritime trade with Bangla

Before the agreement allowing India to utilise the Chittagong and Mongla ports in neighbouring Bangladesh for trade comes into effect, the Kolkata port will conduct four trial runs, an official said. The effort will increase traffic on inland waterways using the Indo-Bangla Protocol route. The 13th India-Bangladesh Joint Group of Customs (JSC) meeting, held in March, is when the decision to undertake trial runs was made, as per Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port official. He said it was decided ships may transport cargo for both Bangladesh and India’s northeastern states. “Test runs must be completed within six months, and we have been asked to conduct them. All destinations are in Bangladesh,” SMP chairman Vinit Kumar said. The trial runs will be conducted on following routes—Mongla to Tamabil (a steep location in Bangladesh’s Sylhet), Tamabil to Chittagong, Chittagong to Sheola (a land border) and Mongla to Bibirbazar.