Nepal will receive the transit facility to carry its export and import cargoes to and from the Mongla port of Bangladesh under a new deal likely to be signed between the two countries soon, the Bangladesh Financial Express reported. The Core Group on Connectivity Matters at a meeting last week cleared the longstanding issue with Nepal with its Chairman Ali Kabir, who is also the secretary for communication ministry, in the chair. “The agreement is likely to be signed very soon as we have okayed the draft agreement,” a high official in the communication ministry said.

”At least six to seven rounds of negotiations took place between Katmandu and Dhaka spanning over five years.”

The high officials of the ministries of communication, commerce, foreign affairs and revenue board are the members of the Core Group, which was constituted in 2006 to solve the connectivity issues of regional countries, including accession to the Asian Highway. Bangladesh and Nepal signed a transit agreement on April 2, 1976 without incorporating any provision for using the territory and ports and routes for entry and exit for Nepalese vehicles that made the agreement almost non-functional, a trade diplomat said.According to the latest draft of the agreement, two routes have been allowed for Nepal. One route for road and the other is for rail.The route identified for road communication is Banglabandha -Syedpur-Kushtia-Khulna-Mongla and the rail route is Rohanpur (Rajshahi)-Rajshahi-Iswardi-Khulna-Mongla. A maximum of 25 Nepalese transports would be allowed to ply through the Bangladesh territory at a time.