Bilateral trade between Bangladesh India through the long-awaited Banglabandha land port has begun in 22/Feb/2011, click here for more details.
Banglabandha land port is located in about 10 acres of acquired land at the north-western tip of Bangladesh in Tetulia under Panchagarh district on the Bangladesh-India highway. The place is of international character and used for Nepal transit traffic passing through a small corridor of India. It is about 22 meter away from the Bangladesh-Indian borderline.
Location: Among the active LCSs in the country, Banglabandha is the most important one, because of its geographical location. Banglabandha land port is the corner-most point of the north- western region of the country; about 57 km north of Panchagarh district headquarter, 5 km from Shiliguri and 10 km from Jalpaiguri town of west Bengal in India. Darjeeling is 58 km away while Nepalese border transit point Kankorvita is 61 km away. The Bhutanese border is only 68 km away from Banglabandha point. That is why this port offers an enormous potential not only for boosting sub- regional trade but also for promoting tourism.
Opportunities: Highway road is available from Panchagarh to Banglabandha land port and the distance is about 6okm to reach the port site. At present, different types of goods such as fertilizer, jute, medical equipment, plastic material, readymade garments, electrical goods, textile, computer and parts, machinery, army goods, chemicals, tea, pulses, rice, onion, apple, marble slab, live animals and miscellaneous are exported and imported through this port.
The Indian exporters are now using Hilli and Burimari land Ports to export their goods to Bangladesh. It is expected that Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Bhutan will prefer to use Banglabandha for international trade and commerce.
Moreover, people interested to travel Darjeeling, one of the most attractive tourist places of India, Himalayan Kingdom of Nepal and Bhutan would prefer to travel through this route after establishing immigration facilities at this land port.
The government also feels encouraged to take initiative to develop a land port at Banglabandha as landlocked Nepal showed interest in using Mongla port for import their goods from other countries. Bangladesh gives discount on port charges for Nepal- bound goods.
However, a 52-km road over the Indian Territory links Banglabandha land port with Kakorvita border point in the Himalayan kingdom Nepal.
India allows only two hours a day for using the road as transit for transporting goods between Bangladesh and Nepal.