India may use two Bangladeshi Ports from January

India may use two Bangladeshi Ports from January

A Correspondent

AGARTALA: India is getting ready to use two Bangladeshi ports – Chittagong and Mongla – from January next though certain issues between the two countries are still to be sorted out.

The naval secretaries of the two countries narrowed down the critical issues at a meeting on Thursday. However, there are certain matters that depend on the two governments.

India has agreed to use the port after paying due fees for it as per international rules, but requested the Bangladesh side to review the matter related to payment of fees for using its roads. Both the sides discussed threadbare over the issue, but could not reach any decision.

The meeting resolved many very crucial issues, including using 14 ports, seven of each of the two countries, as port-on call, introducing ship service in the Dhaka-Kolkata-Guwahati rout, dragging in the 42 km of the waterway in the Indian part of Atrai river and more use of waterways for Indo-Bangla trade.

While Gopal Krishna, Naval Secretary, led the Indian side at the meeting, the Bangladesh side was headed by his counterpart Md. Abdus Samad. Both the sides expressed satisfaction over the outcome of the meeting and said they will proceed further on unresolved matters after getting clearance from their respective governments.

The meeting agreed over allowing the ship crews to arrive on the Bangladeshi soil but a final decision will be taken only after getting the government’s approval. Issuing on-arrival visa to the tourists also was discussed at the meeting, but the final decision is still pending.

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