India-Bangladesh sign agreements to strengthen inland water transportation

New Delhi/Urban Transport News: The Government of India on October 25 signed three bilateral memoranda of understandings with Bangladesh Government to strengthen inland water transportation (maritime relations) with the neighboring country. Both countries have discussed on various issues pertaining to the protocol arrangements and improvement of inland water transportation between them in their 19^th Standing Committee meeting under ‘Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade’ (PIWTT) held at  New Delhi today. [caption id="attachment_2158" align="alignnone" width="1200"] 19th edition of Standing Committee meeting under ‘Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade’ (PIWTT) between India-Bangladesh[/caption] The meeting was attended by high-level delegations that included representatives of Ministries of  Shipping, External Affairs, Home, Finance, DONER, and Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) and officials from Bangladesh belonging to Ministry of Shipping, Board of Revenue, DG (Shipping)  and Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA). The two sides agreed to consider inclusion of the Rupnarayan river (National Waterway-86) from Geonkhali to Kolaghatin West Bengal in the protocol route. They also agreed to declare Kolaghatin West Bengal and Chilmari in Bangladesh as new Ports of Call. The new arrangement will facilitate the movement of fly ash, cement, construction materials etc from India to Bangladesh through IWT on Rupnarayan river. Further, both sides agreed to declare Badarpur on river Barak (NW-16) as an Extended Port of Call of Karimganjin Assam and Ghorasal of Ashuganj in Bangladesh on a reciprocal basis.  The Indian side proposed for the extension of the protocol routes from Kolkata up to Silchar in Assam. In another critical understanding reached at between the two countries, the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for movement of passengers and cruise vessels on Inland Protocol route and coastal shipping routes have been finalized. These river cruise services are likely to commence between Kolkata – Dhaka and Guwahati – Jorhat and back. It was also agreed that a Joint Technical Committee will explore the technical feasibility of operationalization of Dhulian-Rajshahi protocol route up to Aricha and the reconstruction and opening up of Jangipur navigational lock on river Bhagirathi subject to the provisions of the Treaty between India and  Bangladesh on  Sharing of Ganga Waters at Farakka,1996. This move has the potential to reduce the distance to Assam by more than 450 km on the protocol routes. It was also decided that a Project Management Consultant for supervision and monitoring of dredging of Ashuganj-Zakiganj and Sirajganj-Daikhowa stretches of Indo-Bangladesh Protocol Route in Bangladesh will be engaged with 80 % financial contribution from India and rest by Bangladesh. A Joint Monitoring Committee has also been constituted for overall monitoring of the dredging works.

19th edition of Standing Committee meeting under ‘Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade’ (PIWTT) btwn India-B'desh @ NewDelhi 2day whc wl lead 2 SecretaryLevelTalks 2mrw.
D'cussions range ovr issues to improve IWT between 2 sides.@shipmin_india @adg_pib @PIB_India pic.twitter.com/auRqDi1UUw

— IWAI (@IWAI_ShipMin) October 24, 2018

"We have signed three bilateral agreements today. Addendum to Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade (PIWTT), that is some changes have been agreed in the main agreement. Secondly, we have signed an agreement for the use of Mongla and Chattogram port (Bangladesh) for transiting goods to and from India. Third, we have decided to operate passenger and cruise vessels over protocol route," said Gopal Krishna, Secretary, Ministry of Shipping. To bring about a significant reduction in logistics cost and faster delivery of Bangladesh export cargo, Indian side raised the point regarding permitting ‘Third country’ EXIM Trade under Coastal Shipping Agreement and PIWTT  by allowing  Transhipment through Ports on the East Coast of India.  Bangladesh agreed to hold stakeholder consultations and revert on the matter. Both sides agreed for development of Jogighopa as a hub/trans-shipment terminal for movement of cargo to Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Bhutan and notifying Munsiganj River terminal by Bangladesh Customs for routing third party Exim cargo through Kolkata Port. The two sides will hold  Shipping Secretary-level talks here tomorrow wherein agreements for the use of Chattogram and Mongla Ports for movement of goods from  India, Addendum to  PIWTT and Standard Operating Procedure on passengers and cruise movement on the protocol and coastal shipping are expected to be signed. (with PIB inputs)