Delhi plans waterway freight corridor thru Bangladesh

New Delhi is working on a plan to set up a waterway freight corridor to connect India’s mainland with the northeastern states via Bangladesh, The Economic Times reports.

The project, at a cost of Indian Rupees 50 billion, is aimed at reducing substantially the time taken to transport goods to India’s eight northeastern states and costs.

The proposed 900-kilomtre waterway would be used to transport freight from the northern and eastern Indian states to the northeast.

The newspaper said it would start near Haldia in West Bengal, go to the Sundarbans, merge into the Padma river in Bangladesh and then join up with the Brahmaputra in Assam, India.

“We are working on the details of the project. It would substantially improve connectivity between the mainland states and northeast. The cost of freight transportation would come down substantially,” shipping secretary Gopal Krishna was quoted by the ET.

Currently, the report said, highway connectivity to the northeastern states is patchy and transportation of goods by road entails a high cost and takes time.

The newspaper referring to the ministry estimate, said the waterway could help reduce the cost of transportation by about 70 per cent.

The Indian government is said to have already been developing a waterway along the Ganga river between Haldia and Allahabad (1,620 km) at a cost of Rupees 45 billion.

“This link will also be utilised for trade between India and Bangladesh,” the report added.

India and Bangladesh share a 4,095-km border, of which 1,116 km is along rivers.

Krishna was quoted to have said that Bangladesh plans to use Indian ports as transhipment hubs. “Instead of using Colombo or Singapore as a transhipment hub, Bangladesh is now looking at India. Our own container traffic moving to Colombo has come down as transhipment is now happening at our ports,” he reportedly said.

The report said the Indian shipping ministry recently allowed foreign vessel operators to transport containerised cargo meant for import or export within ports located in Indian territory to ensure cargo does not land up in foreign hubs such as Singapore and Colombo.

The official was quoted to have said that in the long term, India plans to develop two ports each on the west and east coasts as transhipment hubs.