Dhaka, Delhi mull resuming rail service

Bangladesh and India are likely to resume rail operations to transport essential commodities and medical supplies between the two countries.

After Delhi proposed uses of railways as a mode of transport in a video conference on Monday, Dhaka yesterday formed a technical committee to see how it can be best utilised to operate trades between the two neighbours.

Talking to The Daily Star, Sharifa Khan, additional secretary (FTA) to the Ministry of Commerce, said at least 17 types of essential commodities like rice, pulse, oil, wheat, maize and onion need to be transported.

"Besides, we also may need to import medical supplies due to the coronavirus pandemic," she added. The technical committee would meet tomorrow to finalise the modus operandi for transporting commodities, she further said.

After a 41-day break due to Covid-19 shutdown, the two countries resumed trade from last Thursday through trucks via Benapole port.

However, Bangaon municipality of West Bengal has opposed exporting goods by blocking trucks since Monday. As a result, nearly 2,000 trucks remained stranded in Bangaon.

Meanwhile, cargo trains are permitted at four Indo-Bangla railway linkages at Petrapole-Benapole, Gede-Darshana, Rohanpur-Singhabad, and Radhikapur-Birol, but operations of freight trains have also remained suspended since March 26.

Mia Jahan, additional director general (operation) of Bangladesh Railway, yesterday said they took initiatives to return Indian wagons from April 27, but no freight train has reached Bangladesh from India.

Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Riva Ganguly Das, in a statement following the video conference, said, "Supply chains between India and Bangladesh like any other part of the world have been affected due to Covid-19 pandemic."

Indian Railways has become the backbone of the Indian logistics supply chain. Also, E-commerce giants, agricultural agencies, pharmaceutical companies, factories using industrial raw materials in India have strengthened their partnership with the Indian Railways, she said at the conference that was attended by Bangladesh officials from the ministries of commerce and foreign, and National Board of Revenue.

The meeting agreed that the existing railway links could be explored to decrease the congestion at the integrated check posts and land custom stations. This could be an economical, user friendly and safer option for traders of both the countries.

It also suggested that an additional advantage would be the reduced human interference, thereby reducing the chances of transmission of Covid-19. Smaller rake options provided by the railways will further benefit the traders to move smaller quantities of essential commodities.

Officials at the Bangladesh commerce and foreign ministries said trade between Bangladesh and India that stood at $10.25 billion in 2018-19, is vital. Bangladesh's exports to India were worth $1.25 billion during the same time.