Indo-Bangladesh Protocol Route Connecting Tripura’s Sonamura to Get Official Nod in March

Agartala, February 20, 2020:

The much ambitious Sonamura-Arichaghat in land waterway route, which has been awaiting a green signal from the protocol committee of India and Bangladesh, is likely to be declared as a protocol route to begin transshipment officially.

The project connecting Tripura’s Sonamura and Bangladesh’s Aricha Ghat, an important river port in Bangladesh is expected to be discussed in the upcoming meeting of Dhaka and New Delhi.

“It is expected that in the next Dhaka-New Delhi meeting scheduled between March and April 2020, the matter of the Indo-Bangladesh protocol route will be cleared and an official declaration will be given” said a highly placed source.

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It may be mentioned here that the official declaration on the protocol route is the need of the hour as until and unless this route gets inducted in the protocol route, the remaining work, such as dredging and expansion of the river-sides, in order to increase navigability of river Gomati cannot be started.

An 80 kilometer river route, through Gomati that meets confluence in River Meghna of Bangladesh, requires serious upgradation so that it can become accessible for receiving shipments.

According to the reports submitted, the main issue that emerges as a serious problem before the inland waterway authorities is the existing bridges over river Gomati.

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“Due to natural reasons, Gomati River is not ready to start operations straight way. The bridges built over the rivers all throughout its course, specially, for the stretch that will be connected with Bangladesh are needed to be maintained in a certain way so that shipment loaded streamers can easily access the route,” said a source.

“There are many of these have been built in such way that does not permit movement of streamers. Perhaps, this will be a big challenge for the authorities after declaration of protocol route” the highly placed source added.

The Indo-Bangladesh Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade exists between India and Bangladesh under which inland vessels of one country can transit through the specified routes of the other.

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