Sheikh Hasina’s visit: Rivers shared, friendship deepened

Subimal Bhattacharjee writes: Improved connectivity between India and Bangladesh not only enhances economic prospects but also builds better relations between the people.

The pipeline stretches 125 km inside Bangladesh's territory and 5 km inside India. (Express/ Praveen Khanna)

5 min readSep 8, 2022 11:14 AM IST First published on: Sep 8, 2022 at 10:59 AM IST

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina just completed a successful state visit to India where seven agreements were signed besides a few project inaugurations and announcements. Coming at a time when both the countries have achieved many lasting milestones in the eight years of coterminous leadership of the current prime ministers in their respective nations, this visit has set the ball rolling for the next few years of cooperation on many fronts, primarily economics and connectivity. As bilateral trade has soared to $18 billion now, doubling in the last five years, and as Bangladesh moves from the least developed countries category to developing country status in the next couple of years, both the countries confabulated on the way forward to keep the special relationship growing.

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However, one of the defining aspects of bilateral relations since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to office has been on getting the northeastern region of India more engaged with Bangladesh. Dhaka has also reciprocated well and today there are many levels of engagements that have caught a sustained pitch on this front. Out of the 4,096 km-long border area with India, Bangladesh and northeast India share a total of 1,879 km and a significant part of that is riverine. This naturally offers the prospect for water sharing for navigational as well as economic pursuits. Hence the MoU signed during this visit between the Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India and the Ministry of Water Resource, Government of Bangladesh on the withdrawal of water by India and Bangladesh from the common border river Kushiyara in southern Assam is pertinent. Bangladesh will draw 153 cusecs of water which will help to irrigate 5,000 acres of land on the Sylhet side. The prospect of waterways via the Kushiyara is already under discussion and PM Modi has also talked about India and Bangladesh working together on data-sharing technology to detect natural calamities and disasters, especially those related to river overflow in the monsoon.

In April this year, Bangladesh allowed India to use two of its important shipping ports, Mongla and Chittagong. Chittagong Port is well connected with Tripura through two of its cities — Comilla and Feni — whose distances are 212 km and 241 km respectively from Agartala, the capital city of Tripura. Today Agartala is well-connected by road, railway, and airway from the rest of the states of the Northeast, and so the possibility of regular formal trade through these routes is a reality.

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India has successfully tested the cargo shipment of goods from central and east India to the Northeast through the Chittagong port. Very recently, on September 3, a vessel containing 25 MT of TMT bars was flagged off from Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port in Kolkata for Silchar in Assam via Chittagong and Sylhet under the Agreement on the use of the Chittagong and Mongla ports.

Connectivity besides the riverine route has also been of significant focus and capacity building on both sides has happened in the past few years and still continues. There are two new upcoming railway links between India and Bangladesh which will boost connectivity. Mahishasan in Karimganj Assam will be linked to Shahbazpur in Bangladesh and Agartala in Tripura will be connected to Akhaura in Bangladesh. These two new railway links will see the light of day within the next three years. In the near future, railway connections will be taken further down to Sabroom in Tripura which is a town just 111 km away from Chittagong Port. At the same time, through Sutarkandi in Assam, which is one of the only two existing functional Integrated Check Posts (ICP) in NER after Akhaura in Tripura, there will be alternate access to Chittagong Port via Sylhet. The direct connection between Sutarkandi to Chittagong port is about 400 km. With two new ICPs under construction in Meghalaya and Mizoram, the connection between Northeast India and Bangladesh will improve further.

Needless to say, the Northeast is a very important connectivity and capacity platform in the government of India’s Act East policy implementation and the Bangladesh corridor is significant in optimally realising that vision. Improved connectivity thus not only enhances economic prospects but also builds better relations between people on both sides, helping them look to the future and overcome the issues of the past like illegal immigration. The sustained momentum seen so far is thus a good outcome of the trip.

The writer is a defence and cybersecurity analyst