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The goods will go to Nepal by rail from Bangladesh. The freight train will travel from Rohanpur in Chapainawabganj to Singhabad border in Malda, India to Biratnagar in Nepal. Nepal will sometimes use Indian territory. For this, have to cross about 217 kilometers from the Bangladesh border.
The cabinet meeting last Monday (August 10, 2020) approved the draft of the new transit route. As a result, goods can go directly from Bangladesh to Nepal through this railway.
In 1976, a bilateral transit and protocol agreement was signed between Bangladesh and Nepal. Under this agreement, Nepal was given 6 ports of call. These are Chittagong Port, Mongla Port, Benapole, Banglabandha, Biral and Chilahati. These ports of call can transport goods to Nepal. But at present regular goods do not come and go in Nepal through any other port except Banglabandha.
Nepal is more interested in taking rail transit on Rohanpur-Singhabad route. At the meeting between the Commerce Secretaries of the two countries held in Kathmandu, Nepal from May 30 to June 1, 2018, the first request was made by Nepal to give Rohanpur a port of call. On August 10, 2020, the approved rail transit route was divided into two parts. The first route is Rohanpur (Chapainawabganj) -Maldaha (India), Singhabad-Jagbani in Bihar-Biratnagar in Nepal. The distance from Rohanpur in Bangladesh to Biratnagar in Nepal is about 217 kilometers. The second route is Rohanpur (Chapainawabganj) - Biral in West Bengal (India) - Radhikapur - Roxal in Bihar - Birganj in Nepal. The distance of Birganj from Bangladesh border in this way is about 514 kilometers. Nepal has already got transit facility to bring and take goods using the railways of Indian territory.
After the cabinet meeting, Cabinet Secretary Khandaker Anwarul Islam told reporters that Nepal had a bilateral transit agreement with Bangladesh in 1976. In the light of that transit agreement, Nepal has sought the facility to bring goods to and from Rohanpur in Chapainawabganj and Singhabad in India. He added that Nepal wants to use Bangladesh's Syedpur airport. If everyone agrees, it will also come in the cabinet in the near future.
Trade and commerce with Nepal is now in favor of Bangladesh. This means that more money is exported from Bangladesh, less goods are imported from Nepal. Even six years ago, trade was in Nepal's favor. This situation turned around from the 2014-15 financial year. In that year, goods worth two and a half crore dollars were exported from Bangladesh. And the goods worth 1 crore 15 lakh dollars have been imported. Since then the volume of this trade has only increased. In the 2018-19 financial year, about 4 crore dollars worth of goods were exported from Bangladesh. And about 1 crore dollars worth of goods have been brought from Nepal.
Source: Online/SZK
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