Bangladesh to reopen cross-border railways with India
By chennaivision at 21 July, 2009, 6:41 pm
Dhaka, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said her government is interested to reopen the cross-border railways abandoned following the 1965 India-Pakistan war, for stronger connectivity between Bangladesh and India in the fields of trade and investment.
Ms Hasina sought Indian cooperation so Bangladesh could transact trade and business through Banglabandh and Burimari land-port routes with Nepal and Bhutan.
Routing trade between Bangladesh and the two landlocked Himalayan countries through the two northern land-ports necessitates corridors through Indian territories.
She made the remarks when a 50-member business delegation from the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) led by its vice-president Harsh C Mariwala had a meeting with her at the Prime Minister’s Office today.
Ms Hasina disclosed that she already has contacted Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee about the rerun of trains along the derelict rails.
Besides, she said, the government would take immediate effective steps to modernise the intra-country railways for communications up to the present day standards.
”I have also seen the rail budget of your country (India). You have expertise in the sector of railway communications. We need your help in this regard,” she told the Indian business leaders.
The Prime Minister informed the delegation that all land-ports located on the Bangladesh-India boarder would be developed and other necessary infrastructures set up there gradually to boost bilateral trade between the two neighbouring countries.
Present two-way trade between the two countries, around six billion dollar, was heavily tilted towards India.
As the delegation requested the Prime Minister for setting up Special Economic Zones in the boarding areas exclusively for Indian investment, she said the government has already planned to build Special Economic Zones where, like others, Indian businessmen could also make their investment.
She said there were EPZs in Comilla, Feni and Syedpur (Uttara EPZ) and Indians could invest in these EPZs as these were close to the boarding regions.
Regarding special economic zone for Indian investment, she said, ”If the Indian businessmen come forward to set up such zones in Bangladesh, the present government will extend all necessary cooperation.” In such special zoning, the present government would prefer labour-intensive industries as the government was strongly committed to remove unemployment problem from the country.
Ms Hasina reaffirmed her government’s stand on promoting public-private partnership for rapid and sustainable development.
Regarding open markets, the Prime Minister said all windows to trade and business should remained open, but, at the same time, greater interest of the people would have to be protected.
The Prime Minister also emphasised sharing experiences among the South Asian countries in the fields of economy, trade, business and investment for the good of the people.
About the existing bilateral friendly relations between Bangladesh and India, Ms Hasina said in case of bilateral problems, these could be solved through discussion.
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