Opinion The Bangladesh big picture

The British viewed Myanmar as a buffer against China as well as against the French,then moving up the Mekong river from Saigon. During World War II,the Allies built the famous Burma Road and then the still more formidable Stilwell Road. Now,new roads and railways are being built by China,besides a deep-sea port off the Arakan coast at Ramree Island,along with oil and gas pipelines. A rail line southwest to Ruili on the Burma border,onward to Rangoon,with a branch extending directly to the sea near Ramree Island,will allow people and cargo to move from Ramree via Mandalay to Yunnan. China has been extensively repairing the old Stilwell Road,from the Chinese border to the Kachin Hills,right up to Arunachal Pradesh: in other words,China’s southwest rail connectivity will become only a day’s drive from India’s eastern edge. China and Bangladesh have already agreed in principle that the new rail line from Kunming to Ramree would be connected all the way to Chittagong. Shouldn’t that open a possibility to extend the corridor to Kolkata?

Calcutta was the model on which downtown Rangoon was based. Bengal was the province closest to Burma geographically,and had the closest relationship. Hundreds of Burmese students studied at schools in Calcutta and Darjeeling. A steamer service operated from Calcutta through the Irrawaddy delta to Rangoon and on to Penang and Singapore. In 1947,three independent countries came into being,where there had been a single empire. The frontiers with Tibet and Yunnan were closed off,and a uniquely tenuous region,Northeast India,was created,barely connected to anywhere else. The east and northeast of colonial India formed a pulsating hinterland for the ports of Calcutta and Chittagong. Post-Partition,severe market disruption,total isolation,and loss of traditional transport and communication facilities adversely impacted the economies of the sub-region. Post-Partition,the distance between Agartala and Kolkata increased from 350 km to 1,645 km. Assam’s tea travels 1,400 km to Kolkata,while it could curtail 60 per cent of the distance,if access to Chittagong port was available.

About 75-80 per cent of India’s exports to Bangladesh take place through the land border routes — Benapole-Petrapole,Hilli and Changrabandha. There is no uninterrupted movement of goods and vehicles across the borders. Goods carried by road are trans-shipped across the border at Benapole. According to a study by the Asian Institute of Transport Development,it takes on average 6.2 days for an outbound truck loaded at Kolkata to unload the shipment at Benapole across the border in Bangladesh,and return to Petrapole — 6.2 days for a distance of 95 km.

The road from Bongaon in India to the border is narrow — in fact,a single lane,blocked by a line of trucks parked alongside. Trucks have to pass through congested residential and market areas,and endure five railway crossings. This entire stretch needs to be upgraded to four lanes; overbridges are needed over railway tracks; a bypass needs to be built at Bongaon to divert traffic from the town; and the Naobhasan bridge reconstructed. This should be synchronised with the projected completion of the belated integrated checkposts.

Nor is there any direct sailing between the ports of India and Bangladesh. Exports by sea are routed through Colombo,Salala,Singapore. The commissioning of Bangabandhu Setu provides an opportunity for overland transportation without multiple trans-shipment. Restrictions on land routes often compel containerised trade to be diverted over land-cum-sea routes,resulting in increased transit time and transaction costs.

The biweekly Maitree Express passenger train takes 12.5 hours to complete its 407 km journey between Kolkata and Dhaka. The immigration and customs formalities at the two border stations consume five hours of that. Regional cooperation should be explored to address the issue of “soft infrastructure” like simplification and computerisation of documents by connecting all customs points through EDI.

Bangladesh has been an active supporter of the two flagship regional transport projects,namely,the Asian Highway and the Trans-Asian Railway. In fact,an eventual materialisation of these networks through Bangladesh would be transformative. Although the southern corridor,involving the subcontinent’s railway network,was an important element in the conceptualisation of the Trans-Asian Railway,the idea has remained dormant,because of less-than-tepid interest from the countries of south Asia.

Mamata Banerjee would have by now seen the price-tag on her tantrum and realised the loss of a great opportunity. A policy of give-and-take has to be in place — even if you sometimes give more than you take.

The writer was the first MD of the Container Corporation of India,express@expressindia.com