Agartala, March 31
The government-owned Food
Corporation of India (FCI) on Tuesday started ferrying rice for Tripura
from Kolkata via Bangladesh as train services have been stopped in the
north-east region of India due to gauge conversion works, an official
said.
"Today (Tuesday) 10 Bangladeshi trucks carrying 16 to 17
tonnes each arrived here. Carrying of rice for Tripura would continue
during the next few days," an FCI official said.
He said: "In
this phase, 10,000 tonnes of rice would be ferried from Kolkata to
Tripura via Bangladesh. Several ships carried the rice from Kolkata to
Ashuganj port in Bangladesh. From Ashuganj port, Bangladeshi trucks
ferried the rice to FCI warehouses in Nandannagar, near Agartala," the
official added.
Train services in Tripura, Manipur, Mizoram and
southern Assam have been suspended since last October for the two-phase
track conversion, from metre-gauge to broad-gauge, being undertaken by
the Northeast Frontier Railways and scheduled to end in March 2016.
The
first phase, covering a 210 km route -- Lumding-Silchar (in southern
Assam) line -- has been completed and the inaugural goods train carrying
about 2,300 tonnes of potatoes from West Bengal reached Silchar on
March 27.
According to NFR officials, the gauge conversion work on the Silchar-Agartala section would be completed by March next year.
Tripura
Food and Civil Supplies Minister Bhanulal Saha told IANS: "The FCI
informed us that it would transport another 10,000 tonnes of rice for
Tripura via Bangladesh this week."
He said: "The 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 the beginning of the monsoon in June."
The monsoon starts
in June and continues up to September creating a problem in ferrying
food grains, essentials and other goods from other parts of India to the
north-east via the mountainous roads, as the areas are highly prone to
landslide.
The FCI last year ferried 10,000 tonnes of rice in two
phases to Tripura from Visakhapatnam port in Andhra Pradesh via
Bangladesh.
"Ships carried the rice from Visakhapatnam port to
Kolkata port, then to Ashuganj port in Bangladesh. From Ashuganj port,
Bangladeshi trucks ferried the rice to FCI warehouses in Nandannagar,"
the FCI official said, adding that the rice is being carried from
Kolkata instead of Visakhapatnam to save time and costs.
Ashuganj port on Meghna river in Bangladesh is 57 km from Tripura capital Agartala.
The FCI has decided to carry a total of 35,000 tonnes of rice in different phases for Tripura via Bangladesh by this year's end.
The
eight north-eastern states, including Sikkim, are largely dependent on
Punjab, Haryana and other larger 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 allow
transportation of food grains for Tripura across its territory without
charging any duty under a special transit facility.
The Indian government had spent several million 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 north-eastern states as well, the FCI official said.
Transportation
via Bangladesh is much easier as road connectivity is a major issue for
the mountainous north-eastern states which share boundaries with
Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan and China.
There is only a
narrow land corridor to the north-eastern region 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.
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.
