India,Bangladesh for cementing relations,increasing trade

“From Bangladesh,we do not want only Hilsa but many more items and from India too we need to send many more things. Similarly more people from both the countries should visit each other,’’ Chidabaram said after laying the foundation stone of the ICP which will be built at the cost of Rs 172 crore. In the first phase,Rs 94 crore have been sanctioned by the Central government to build the ICP on an 80-acre plot at a site near Petrapole border. The project is expected to be completed in 17 months.

India will build 13 such ICPs with its borders with Pakistan,Bangladesh,Napal and Myanmar and 7 of them will be on Bangladesh border.

Referring to the Prime Minister’s forthcoming visit to Bangladesh,Chidambaram said it would herald a new era in the relationship between the two countries. “Our Prime Minister will be accompanied by five Chief Ministers and many agreements will be signed,’’ he said.

Bangladesh Home Minister Sahara Khatun said the month of August has been cruel to Bangladesh as it was on August 15,1975 when Bangabandhu Shaikh Mujibur Rehman along with his family members was killed in an army coup and it was on August 21,2004 when a grenade attack on the convoy of Shaikh Hasina,then opposition leader,left 24 people dead.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee,on the occasion,stressed on the strengthening of the bond between the two countries.