DHAKA, July 14 � Bangladesh has asked India to explain how it plans to use Chittagong and Mongla ports under an agreement signed during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina�s maiden tour to New Delhi in January this year, officials said.
�We have asked for the Indian proposal explaining the modus operandi for using our Chittagong and Mongla ports,� Shipping Ministry spokesman Jahangir Alam told PTI, a day after Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka Rajeeb Mittar called on Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan at his office.
He said Bangladesh has assured the Indian envoy that the ports were now ready for uses in line with the deal while under previous two separate deals, Bhutan and Nepal would also be allowed to use the facilities simultaneously.
Alam said the minister said Bangladesh particularly wanted to know which routes India preferred for carrying their goods to and from the ports and the methods of transporting the cargo.
The spokesman, however, said that Khan and Mittar also discussed issues relating to expansion and management reforms of the two ports as experts earlier said the facilities should be overhauled to be enabled to handle extra cargos of the three neighbours.
In a related development, he said India offered to bear the finances for the reconstruction of a major land route to be used for carrying its heavy consignments under an earlier understanding.
The two countries in March this year signed a crucial trans-shipment agreement finalising an earlier deal to allow Indian goods to be trans-shipped to its isolated northeastern Tripura state through Bangladesh territory.
The Prothom Alo newspaper, quoting the shipping minister, said New Delhi wanted to bear the entire amount to be required for the reconstruction of the Ahuganj-Agartala road as the two neighbours signed the deal for carrying goods and particularly heavy electrical equipment.
Shipping Secretary Abdul Mannan Hawladar earlier told PTI that under the agreement Bangladesh declared its Ashuganj as a new �port of call� for transport of Indian goods while New Delhi in a reciprocal step declared their Shilghat as port of call on the Indian side.
The two neighbours signed the agreement in line with an earlier decision taken during Hasina�s India tour and talks with her counterpart Manmohan Singh.
With the signing of the agreement Ashuganj became the second trans-shipment point and fifth port of call in Bangladesh for India.
