The stakeholders of Bangladesh and India hope that the trade between the two countries will expand through the opening of the Akhaura-Agartala railway.
Work has already started for this purpose. All products produced in Bhutan (except cotton and potatoes) and 60 products from India have been approved.
Besides, all kinds of products from Bangladesh can be exported through the mentioned railway route .
This import-export information is known from a notification of the Internal Revenue Department of the National Board of Revenue Government of Bangladesh.
This notification was issued on October 31. In the same notification, four more products were allowed to be imported through Akhaura land port in Brahmanbaria. These products are husks, pulses, boots and bamboo.
Due to the issuance of this new notification in the National Board of Revenue, there is enthusiasm among the traders. They are hoping to start importing goods from India within a few months after the railway accessories are completed.
Akhaura land port businessman.
Akhaura has lost the land port trade. With the permission to import and export goods through railways, a new trend will come back in trade. Businessmen will benefit” said a bangladesi trader.
‘If the Akhaura-Agartala railway line is launched, the trade between the two countries will increase. Import of stone and wheat in particular will be easy for us. As Indian trains will come to Bangladesh, the transportation cost will decrease. Notifications have already been issued for import-export of goods. However, commercial operations cannot be started right now due to some remaining work on railway lines in parts of India. We hope that import-export activities can be started within a few months” he said.
It has been revealed that the railway connection between the two countries was inaugurated on Wednesday through video conference by the PMs of both the countries.
Meanwhile, Indians are looking forward to passenger train movement through Bangladesh. Especially the people of Tripura think that they will save a lot of time if they go to different parts of the country through Kolkata. Besides, it will be easy for them to go to Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh.
But at this moment it is not possible of Agartala-Kolkata train movement via Bangladesh. The obstacle in this case is the meter gauge railway line. Because, even though Akhaura to Bhairab is broad gauge (dual gauge), the entire stretch from Bhairab to Tongi in Bangladesh still remains meter gauge.
In this case, it is not possible to go directly from Agartala to Kolkata through Bangladesh until that road is converted into a broad gauge line.
If this railway connection project between India and Bangladesh is launched, mainly Indian businessmen will benefit more. In this case, they can easily take the goods brought from different countries by train to seven neighboring states including Tripura using Chittagong port.
In this case, there will be no difficulty in train movement as there is a broad gauge line from Chittagong to Gangasagar in Akhaura.
