Dhaka to allow Delhi transit to ferry relief

In a significant move, Dhaka has decided to allow Delhi to ferry food grains to the landlocked north-eastern states of India using Bangladesh's territory and infrastructure. And India won't have to pay any charges for this transit facility.
Diplomatic sources said following requests from the Indian government, Dhaka has agreed to transport 10,000 tonnes of food grains as relief material for Tripura through its river and road territory under a special transit facility in the first phase.
The Food Corporation of India (FCI) will send rice and wheat from Andhra Pradesh to Tripura using the Ashuganj river port in eastern Bangladesh and the roadways leading to the state.
According to BBC, the transportation is likely to take two weeks and if the "experiment works well", the process will continue for eight months. The first consignment is expected reach at Agartala via Bangladesh in the second week of July.
Two barges carrying the grains will move from Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh by sea route and arrive at the Ashuganj river port. From there, the supplies will be loaded on trucks which then will go to Agartala through the Akhaura border checkpoint.
In 2012, Bangladesh allowed India's state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation to ferry heavy machinery, turbines and cargo through Ashuganj for the 726MW Palatana power project in southern Tripura.
Bangladesh government gave the transit free of charges as a goodwill gesture.
Indian media quoting Saumitra Bandopadhyaya, special secretary and director of food and civil supplies in the Tripura government, said the external affairs ministry has already worked out the formalities with Bangladesh to carry out smooth movement of the first consignment of food grains.
“Once this experiment works well, we will be able to move our requirement through Bangladesh till the Lumding-Badarpur broad-gauge conversion work is completed by March-April 2015,” he told The Indian Express.
The distance from Ashuganj to Tripura's capital Agartala is only 45km whereas it's 1,650km from Kolkata via Guwahati and 2,637km from New Delhi. The distance between Agartala and Kolkata via Bangladesh is just about 350km.
Tripura, which requires 33,000 tonnes of food grains every month, has to transport the entire bulk from the FCI storehouses in Guwahati and Lumding through the metre-gauge Lumding-Agartala rail link.
The Lumding-Badarpur section, built in the mid-19th century by the British, and popularly called the Hill Section, is the most treacherous, particularly when monsoon rain causes landslides. The Hill Section is being re-laid and converted into broad-gauge.