FCI to ferry more rice for Tripura via Bangladesh

Agartala, March 7 (IANS) Another 10,000 tonnes of rice will be ferried to Tripura via Bangladesh as train services in the northeastern states have been stopped in southern part of northeast region due to gauge conversion, a minister said here on Saturday.

Train services in Tripura, Manipur, Mizoram and southern Assam have been suspended from last October for track conversion from meter gauge to broad gauge being undertaken by the Northeast Frontier Railways and scheduled to end March 2016 in two phases.

"The Food Corporation of India (FCI) informed us that it will transport another 10,000 tonnes of rice for Tripura via Bangladesh next week," Tripura Food and Civil Supplies Minister Bhanulal Saha told IANS.

He said: "Tripura government has urged the central government to carry rice for the state regularly via Bangladesh till the railway's gauge conversion works are completed. We want to create a buffer stock of food grain in Tripura before beginning of the monsoon."

The monsoon starts in June and it continue up to September creating a gigantic problem in ferrying food grains, essentials and other goods from other parts of India to northeast via mountainous roads, as the areas are very landslide prone and jagged condition.

The FCI last year ferried 10,000 tonnes of rice in two phases to Tripura from Visakhapatnam port in Andhra Pradesh via Bangladesh.

"Several ships carried the rice from Visakhapatnam port to Kolkata port, then to Ashuganj port in (eastern) Bangladesh. From Ashuganj port, Bangladeshi trucks ferried the rice to FCI warehouses in Nandannagar near Agartala," FCI official Nilanjan Chowdhury told IANS.

Ashuganj port over the Meghna river in eastern Bangladesh is around 57 km from Agartala.

Chowdhury said that the next consignment of rice would be ferried from Kolkata instead of Andhra Pradesh to Tripura via Bangladesh next week to save time and costs.

The FCI has decided to carry a total of 35,000 tonnes of rice in different phases for Tripura via Bangladesh by next year.

The eight northeastern states, including Sikkim, are largely dependent on Punjab, Haryana and other bigger states in India for food grains and essential commodities.

The central government has also floated bids to import rice from Myanmar for Manipur and Mizoram.

Following diplomatic parleys, the Bangladesh government agreed to transport food grains for Tripura across its territory without charging any duty under a special transit facility.

Earlier in 2012, Bangladesh had allowed state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation to ferry heavy machinery, turbines and over-dimensional cargoes through Ashuganj port for the 726 MW Palatana mega power project in southern Tripura.

The Indian government had spent several millions of rupees to develop the Ashuganj port and related infrastructure.

After Tripura, it is likely that food grains will be ferried in a similar way to other northeastern states, the FCI official said.

The transportation via Bangladesh is much easier as road connectivity is a big factor for the mountainous northeastern states which share boundaries with Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan and China.

There is only a narrow land corridor to the northeastern region from India through Assam and West Bengal but this route passes through hilly terrain with steep gradients and multiple hairpin bends, making plying of vehicles, especially loaded trucks, very difficult.

For instance, Agartala via Guwahati is 1,650 km from Kolkata by road and 2,637 km from New Delhi, while the distance between Agartala and Kolkata via Bangladesh is just about 620 km.