Current State of Integration in Transportation Infrastructure

4.1. Overview of Transport Network

Road Network

Although there are doubts about the quality of roads, each square kilometer (km) of area is now served by one km of road in Bangladesh and India. Roads in Bangladesh and India have grown in prominence as a means for moving people and goods. India has an extensive 3.3 million km road network, making it one of the largest road networks in the world. National highways are the prime arterial routes, spanning about 58,112 km throughout India (2% of country’s total road lengths) and catering to about 40% of total freight (Table 9 [ PDF 12.8KB | 1 page ]). To mitigate the demand of rising road freight, the Indian government has been implementing its ambitious 13,146 km National Highway Development Project (NHDP) for the last few years.¹²

Rail Network

The railway network in South Asia is one of the largest railway systems in the world. It has an extensive network that is spread over 75,002 km, of which about 70% is broad gauge network. At present, about 30% of freight and 20% of passenger traffic are carried by railways in India whereas the same for the road sector are 70% and 80%, respectively. There is growing modal imbalance between railways and roadways in India (World Bank, 2002). Table 9 shows that the penetration of the railway network is much lower than that of the road sector in this region. India has a stable broad gauge railway network whereas that of Bangladesh is miserably poor, fragmented, and unstable. Bangladesh, with a total 2,734 km of railway network, has only 901 km of broad gauge track (only 33% of the total network), making it the least developed railway system in this region (CPD, 2003). Indian Railways is running losses primarily because of cross-subsidization and high nonperforming assets. The losses incurred on passenger services are cross-subsidized by profits earned through freight services and earnings from higher classes of passenger travel. In addition, crosssubsidization exists within the freight services since certain commodities such as salt, fruits, vegetables, etc. are being carried at a much lower cost of operations (Government of India, 2003).

Air Network

The civil aviation sector in India has made significant strides in coping with the growth of international and domestic traffic. However, the same is yet to begin in Nepal and Bangladesh. The aviation sector has been increasingly acknowledged to significantly contribute to the economic development of this region and is crucial for sustainable development of trade and tourism. A glance at Table 10 [ PDF 12.5KB | 1 page ] makes it obvious that airlines in the region under study have carried more passengers than freights in 2001, compared to those in 1991. In general, the region has witnessed a phenomenal rise in air traffic in recent years.

Waterways have been found to be the cheapest means of moving passengers and goods in the remotest parts of Bangladesh and India. Today, though Bangladesh, India, and Nepal together have about 25,000 km of navigable waterways consisting of a variety of rivers, canals, backwaters, etc., only 10,740 km of the major rivers and 700 km of canals are suitable for operating mechanized crafts (Table 11 [ PDF 12.2KB | 1 page ]). Due to lack of proper water transport infrastructure, organized inland water transport (IWT) services constitute a very small part of the total transport network in the region. IWT is still not the preferred mode of transport. Out of total freight traffic of about 900 million tons by all modes of surface transport in 2001–2002, IWT accounts for only 25 million tons and thereby accounts for only 3% of total freight traffic of the region under study. If absence of all-weather navigability is a cause of low freight traffic in IWT, then lack of awareness of its energy conservation potential is also a reason to blame.¹³

Inland Waterways Network

Movement of goods by the IWT system is yet to gain momentum in India. Against the share of IWT in the level of 8–20% of total inland cargo in countries like the United States of America, Netherlands, and People’s Republic of China (PRC), the share of IWT in India and Bangladesh is around 0.1%. Although the movement of IWT traffic in bulk and break-bulk categories increased, the movement of containers, apart from some periodic trail runs, has not made any foray in the IWT sector in India.¹⁴

Maritime Network

India and Bangladesh are endowed with about 9,000 km of coastline, which is dotted with more than 250 ports. Although a large number of sea and river ports exist, only 27 are in operation and can be treated as prominent ports of the region. All these ports taken together handle over 500 million tons of cargo including over 5 million twenty equivalent units (TEUs) of container (see Table 11). Ports are a key component of infrastructure in India, where recent policy initiatives have ushered in new institutional arrangements, and have yielded results in terms of measurable outcomes such as delays at the ports. Most major ports in India have been partly privatized resulting in more efficient operation. Some of the world’s leading port companies are also running container terminals in India.¹⁵

4.2 Overview of Overland Trade

Even though India and Bangladesh share a long international border and depend on transport infrastructure in a major way for their two-way trade, wide and strong interlinking between the two countries, particularly in the railway sector, is clearly absent.¹⁶ Table 12 [ PDF 10.3KB | 1 page ] shows that trade between India and Bangladesh is carried out mostly by road, and a comparatively low percentage is carried out by sea and railway. Petrapole in West Bengal alone handles over 35% of India’s exports to Bangladesh (2003–2004). Even though a major portion of India’s merchandise exports to Bangladesh through the sea passes through the Jawaharlal Nehru port, exports passing the Vizag and Kakinada ports have considerably increased recently (Table 12).

Land Border Routes

Land (border) routes are generally convenient and popular for trading between neighboring countries. This is particularly so for countries sharing a long border, as in the case of India and Bangladesh. The border between India and Bangladesh is basically porous. At present, there are officially 35 land customs stations (LCSs) through which India’s trade with Bangladesh is carried out. Among these 35 LCSs, Petrapole (in West Bengal) in the road sector and Gede (in West Bengal) in the railway sector are the two noted ones, which together share over 70% of the India–Bangladesh border trade (Table 13 [ PDF 9.9KB | 1 page ]). However, there are six recognized overland border routes (roads) between India’s North Eastern Region (NER) and Bangladesh. Dawki in Meghalaya is the oldest LCS and mainly traffics coal from the NER to Bangladesh. In 2004–2005, India exported $12.30 million worth of goods to Bangladesh through Dwaki, whereas the import from Bangladesh through Dwaki was negligible.¹⁷ However, a few more LCSs in the NER, such as Borsora and Shella Bazar (both in Meghalaya) and Sutakandi and Ghasuapara (both in Assam), are increasingly handling India’s overland exports to Bangladesh through the NER.

Trade through Petrapole (India)–Benapole (Bangladesh)

Of the road route, the heaviest movement (in value terms) is via Petrapole (India)–Benapole (Bangladesh). Road traffic to Bangladesh via Petrapole converges at Bangaon, situated 4 km from the international border at Petrapole. The access roads including the national highway to Bangaon are mostly narrow and single-lane roads. At Bangaon, trucks have to cross narrow roads passing through residential and market areas. Consequently, trucks heavily congest the areas in and around Bangaon and Petrapole. Quite often 1,400–1,500 trucks queue to enter Bangladesh. This congestion is perceived as an encroachment on civil amenities. In fact, the chaotic conditions prevailing have resulted in diversion of traffic to other LCSs like Hilli, Mohedipur, Changrabandha, and to a newly opened LCS at Bhojadanga, south of Petrapole. In addition, the movement beyond Benapole is slow and time consuming, and subject to the vagaries of weather. Currently, cargoes brought in by Indian trucks and delivered to Benapole are moved by overland routes by Bangladeshi trucks to Goaland–Achira ferry point on Padma River. From here, the trucks are ferried across the river to move on to Dhaka and other destinations in the eastern sector of Bangladesh. However, the commissioning of the rail-cum-road bridge over river Jamuna, along with the strengthening of access roads and roads in the bridge, has eased the congestion of road movement and facilitated road penetration into the more developed and populous eastern part of Bangladesh. Table 14 [ PDF 6.6KB | 1 page ] shows the LCS-wise (West Bengal– Bangladesh corridors) value of exports and imports between India and Bangladesh in recent years.

Table 15 [ PDF 10.7KB | 1 page ] provides the commodity composition of India’s overland exports to Bangladesh through land borders. Some of the important items, which have grown in India’s exports basket and are increasingly traded formally, are onions and garlic; rice; cotton woven articles (code 5209), including denims; synthetic organic coloring materials; unwrought aluminum; other materials of iron and steel; pneumatic tires; chassis of cars with engines; and radio receivers and video apparatus. These items have shown rising trends in India’s export basket. Some important items, including cement, sugar, cotton yarn, coal briquettes, and wheat, do not figure in Table 15. However, most of these items did not show very rapid growth except perhaps wheat and coal briquettes.

Table 16 [ PDF 10.7KB | 1 page ] shows major Indian imports from Bangladesh through LCSs, located in West Bengal. Out of the three major Bangladesh exports to India, two—Hilsa and other fishes, and raw jute—come entirely from land routes. The other major export is ammonia anhydrous or aqueous solution, which is exported to India through the sea.

Overland exports from India to Bangladesh are well diversified. In terms of trade value, Petrapole LCS in road and Ranaghat/Gede LCS in rail carry the bulk of India’s overland exports to Bangladesh. The two major transport corridors that serve India’s international trade with Bangladesh are those that connect Dhaka with Kolkata and Jawaharlal Nehru with Chittagong Port. Other transport corridors that serve India’s international trade with Bangladesh handle much smaller volumes.

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