The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) authorities inspected Belonia railway station as well as Muhurighat integrated checkpost in the sub-division on 1 and 2 February. The authorities were led by senior section engineer Rajendra Prasad Deka in the company of Belonia constituency’s MLA Arun Chandra Bhowmik. Speaking to reporters, Rajendra Prasad Deka said, “The railway connectivity between Belonia and Feni in Chittagong shall give Tripura access to Myanmar’s Sittwe port. And this shall facilitate cargo transportation in Northeast India and reduce freight charges as such”.

The Government of Bangladesh has signed a €360 mn loan agreement with the Asian Development Bank to upgrade the Dhaka- Northwest international trade corridor. The assistance forms the second tranche of $1.2 billion multi-tranche ADB loans for the second South Asia Sub-regional Economic Cooperation or SASEC Dhaka-Northwest Corridor Road Project.

Discussions on the much-talked about sub-regional connectivity initiative - BBIN Motor Vehicle Agreement (MVA) - are going to resume after around two years. A Joint Working Group (JWG) meeting on Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, and Nepal (BBIN) MVA was held on January 30-31 in New Delhi. The meeting’s purpose is to finalise the BBIN MVA Protocols, namely the Passenger Vehicle Protocol and the Cargo Vehicles Protocol. 

The government is set to inaugurate construction of Bangabandhu Railway Bridge on the Jamuna River on March 14. Railways Minister Md Nurul Islam Sujan has said direct train service on Dhaka-Siliguri route will begin in June after installation of the Chilahati-Haldibari rail track. The government has long been working to ensure stronger rail communications inside the country and with neighbouring India. 

Bangladesh Railway will start discussion with Indian Railways soon to assess whether two more passenger train routes can be opened between the countries, Railways Minister Nurul Islam Sujan said. On the Dhaka-Kolkata route, Maitree Express will run five days a week instead of four days from February 11 and Bandhan Express two days instead of one day on the Khulna-Kolkata route from February 16, he said.

The Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina directed the shipping ministry to expanding communications with India’s north-eastern province of Assam as well as Bhutan and Nepal by waterways. The PM issued the directive while chairing a meeting of the executive committee of the national economic council at the planning commission. She also asked the operators to install most modern scanners to further modernize the Chattogram Port, the Mongla Port, and the Payra port.

The construction of the country’s first mini-dry port in Phuentsholing is complete and ready for use. Spanning 5.4 acres of land, the port is located near the second gate and connects the Northern Bypass, another SASEC project in Phuentsholing. The port would house more than 45 trucks and have customs clearance for imports and exports, and help decongest the country’s commercial hub.

The Department of Roads (DoR) has contracted the entire project which is split into three packages. The first package was the construction of the Bhalujhora bridge. The second package was to construct the multicellular box culvert across Bahunijhora, and the third being the development of land customs station.The Multi-cellular Box Culvert along including gabion protection wall along Bhalujhora was completed in May.

There are no two opinions that the missing link in India's economic growth story was, and is, a robust infrastructure. This just about sums up the key role infrastructure plays to support and sustain a durable economic growth for India at a time when the economy is showing signs of fatigue. The granting of infrastructure status to the logistics sector, which covered cold chain and warehousing facilities, was seen as a strategic initiative meant to aid the sector in gaining access to institutional credit and boost its global competitiveness in the domestic and export markets.

The Narendra Modi cabinet has approved the construction of the Dhubri-Phulbari bridge. The 19.8-km-long bridge will be built over the Brahmaputra to reduce the distance between Dhubri in Assam and Phulbari in Meghalaya, bringing socio-economic relief to the region. The bridge will replace the 9.1-km-long Bhupen Hazarika Setu, also known as the Dhola-Sadiya Bridge in eastern Assam, as India’s longest bridge.

Assam Governor Prof. Jagdish Mukhi said that in railway budget 2020-21, centre has allocated nine per cent of the total budget for the North eastern states. Speaking at the inaugural session of North East Infrastructure Development Conclave for the development of physical connectivity and integrated urban development for Northeast, Prof. Mukhi said that government of India is very liberal in investing in infrastructure to eliminate service backlogs of North East with special emphasis on rural areas.

Seven big private Indian companies have submitted their application to bring own vessels. The IWAI is also getting applications from private players including global companies that want to build their own jetties. “Because of keenness shown by the private sector, this project of Rs 5,369 crore will be completed in less than Rs 4,000 crore. The government is making a saving of Rs 1,200 to Rs 1,400 crore because the private sector is coming in. Even the cruise business on the river has picked up. There were only two to three cruise vessels around five years ago on the Ganga.

While briefing about some of the upcoming projects in the northeast, Singh, the Union Minister for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), said his ministry will bear the cost of laying 5.46 kms track on the Indian side while the cost of laying 10.6 kms track on the Bangladesh side is being borne by the Ministry of External Affairs. The railway link will connect Gangasagar in Bangladesh to Nischintapur in India and from Nischintapur to Agartala railway station.

Far off cities may soon have access to freshly plucked marigold from Kaithi in Varanasi, vegetables from Ghazipur and Munger, banana and paan (betel) from Hajipur and fruits from Bhagalpur as the government goes ahead with setting up small community jetties along the Ganga. This initiative is part of the Arth Ganga plan, which aims to boost economic activities along the holy river and benefit people living in the adjoining areas. 

“Connectivity has been the main thrust of our engagement with our neighbours,” said Oli. “We believe that multimodal connectivity with India and Trans-Himalayan Multidimensional Connectivity Network with China offer immense opportunity for our development and prosperity.” Enumerating connectivity-related projects that Nepal is currently implementing, Oli said that landlocked Nepal would soon become linked via waterways and that Nepal’s flag carriers would soon be sailing the country’s big rivers.

An eight-member team led by Baikuntha Aryal, secretary at the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies (MoICS), is participating in the two-day meeting. The meeting will primarily focus on bilateral trade and investment, direct bus service, cargo movement, direct flights, possible waterways connecting the two nations and easing different customs barriers.

To increase connectivity, Southeast Asian nations have taken both regional and sub-regional approach. “Mainland Southeast Asian nations created Greater Mekong Sub-regional Group, giving rise to a lot of cross border planning and dealing in the areas of customs and duties and establishment of special economic zones in bordering regions,” said Gwen Robinson, Editor of Nikkei Asia Review.

Nepal and India have finalized the modality for allowing Nepal to operate its cargo vessels on three inland waterways of India. In a two-day Nepal-India Transit Treaty Review meeting that concluded in Kathmandu, the southern neighbor agreed to allow operation of Nepali vessels on the Ganges River that runs parallel of Nepal’s southern border, according to the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies.