With an aim to facilitating bilateral trade and ease people’s movement across the border, Bangladesh and India have opened a new land port, connecting Banglabandha and Phulbari, which is the 28th land port on an approximately 4,100-km-long Indo-Bangla border.
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India’s State Minister for External Affairs V K Singh, along with Home Minister of Bangladesh Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, inaugurated the new land port recently.
Throwing open the new facility, V K Singh reportedly said that the “long-standing issue has finally come to fruition”, adding that, “this check-post not only has the potential to increase bilateral trade and commerce, but also cement close ties between the people of Northern Bangladesh and Northern West Bengal”.
This immigration check-post, which is also a gateway to North East India, Nepal and Bhutan, will reportedly connect people from Rangpur and Dinajpur districts of Bangladesh; and Jalpaiguri, Cooch Bihar, Darjeeling districts of Northern West Bengal; and Sikkim and Assam.
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Singh further underlined that the proximity of this region to Bangladesh makes it “an ideal location” to invest by taking advantage of its natural resources.
“India and Bangladesh are connected by an emotional bond of language and culture, which goes beyond any formal relationship between Governments… Our people are one, and together we can face the big challenges of this century,” Sing said, adding that the potential for taking the current bilateral relationship to new heights and expanding in new directions is immense.
High Commissioner of India to Bangladesh Harsh Vardhan Shringla, West Bengal government’s North Bengal Development Department Minister in-Charge Goutam Deb and Municipal Affairs and Urban Development Department’s Minister-in-Charge Firhad Hakim apart from others were present on the occasion.
