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India, Bangladesh to strengthen regional connectivity

An official statement today said the two sides appreciated the significant growth in the bilateral trade between the two countries in recent years. Bangladesh is now the 6th largest trading partner of India.

India, Bangladesh to strengthen regional connectivity

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India and Bangladesh have decided to strengthen regional connectivity between the two countries through multi-modal transport.

The decision was taken at the commerce secretary level meeting between India and Bangladesh held here yesterday.

The Indian delegation was led by Commerce Secretary B.V.R. Subrahmanyam while the Bangladesh delegation was headed by Senior Secretary Tapan Kanti Ghosh.

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Both sides held extensive discussions on a variety of issues of mutual interest, including development of railway infrastructure and port infrastructure, Joint Study on Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), Border Haats, regional connectivity through Multi-Modal Transportation, Harmonisation of Standards and a Mutual Recognition Agreement.

An official statement today said the two sides appreciated the significant growth in the bilateral trade between the two countries in recent years. Bangladesh is now the 6th largest trading partner of India.

The two sides stressed the importance of facilitating bilateral trade through railways. For developing a container handling facility at Sirajganj Bazar, a Detailed Project Proposal (DPP) was approved.

The two sides also noted that for running freight trains between India-Bangladesh, a 900- meter new siding line has been constructed at Benapole. For allowing the import of all commodities from India by rail via Darsana, the construction of a loading and unloading platform has been completed at Darshana.

There was a consensus over the use of returning empty railway wagons/containers by Bangladesh. This would reduce the overall logistics cost of India’s exports to Bangladesh.

It was decided that the Border Haats closed due to Covid restrictions would be opened soon. The two sides also decided that 24×7 operationalisation of the Petrapole-Benapole Integrated Check Post (ICP) would be implemented soon.

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