From over Rs 4000 crores to zero: At nation’s biggest land port after Delhi’s curbs on Bangladeshi readymade garments

“Mostly, readymade garments from Bangladesh come through Petrapole, and that has now been completely stopped. The other items mentioned also passed through land ports and border check posts in Changrabandha and the Northeast states. Those have stopped too. We’re not allowing any of the items through land ports,” said a senior customs official at Petrapole.

“It’s a huge business — and it’s come to a halt,” said Kartik Chakraborty, secretary of the Petrapole Clearing Agents’ Staff Welfare Association.

In the last three years, consignments of readymade garments from Bangladesh worth thousands of crores annually passed through Petrapole.

According to the data available with the Petrapole authorities, 15,844 consignments of readymade garments worth Rs 4,576.63 crore entered India from Bangladesh in the 2022-2023 fiscal.

In 2023-2024, 13,587 consignments arrived, valued at Rs 3,750.23 crore. The following year, 13,693 consignments came in, totaling Rs 4,388.54 crore. And in April of the 2025-2026 financial year alone, 688 consignments were received from Bangladesh, valued at Rs 178.18 crore.

On April 8, New Delhi stopped transshipment facilities for Bangladesh, days after Muhammad Yunus, the country’s chief advisor, advocated for expanding the Chinese economic presence in the strategically important Northeast region.

“The number of trucks from Bangladesh had already started falling due to issues in their country. Then it dropped further after India cancelled transshipment facilities. Now, with this, it will decline even more. Earlier, around 300 trucks came daily when things were normal. Now it’s down to about 150 a day,” Chakraborty said.

Expressing concerns about sea port transportation, Syed Azizul Haq, who runs a customs clearing agency in Benapole, Bangladesh, said, “Shipping readymade garments to Kolkata or Mumbai ports will be difficult. First, the vessels don’t have enough capacity to handle containers. Second, the transport cost will be too high. For Mumbai, shipments would have to go via Colombo, which is not practical. And it takes much longer. Sending garments by sea isn’t feasible. Business owners and workers will suffer. I hope things go back to normal soon.”

Petrapole, the largest land port in South Asia, is located on the India-Bangladesh border about 80 km from Kolkata. In 2023-2024, the port recorded trade worth Rs 30,42,092 crore and handled 23,48,707 passenger movements between the two countries.