Banglabandha is a major inland port

Inland port

The term inland port is used in two different but related ways to mean either a port on an inland waterway or an inland site carrying out some functions of a seaport.- As a port on an inland waterway :...

 in northern Bangladesh

Bangladesh

Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...

 established to provide a trade link with India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, Nepal

Nepal

Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...

 and Bhutan

Bhutan

Bhutan , officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked state in South Asia, located at the eastern end of the Himalayas and bordered to the south, east and west by the Republic of India and to the north by the People's Republic of China...

. The three nations are separated by 52 km (32.3 mi) of India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n territory, known as the Siliguri Corridor.

Location

The Banglabandha land port is located at the tip of northwestern Bangladesh. It is 57 km (35.4 mi) north of the Panchagarh District

Panchagarh District

Panchagarh is a district of Rangpur division in the extreme northern part of Bangladesh with an area of 1404.63 square km, is bounded on three sides by 288 km long Indian border, having Darjeeling district on the north, Jalpaiguri and Kuchbihar districts on the northeast, west Dinajpur and...

 and 7 km (4.3 mi) from Siliguri

Siliguri

Siliguri is a city in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is located in the Siliguri Corridor or Chicken's Neck - a very narrow strip of land linking mainland India to its north-eastern states. It is also the transit point for air, road and rail traffic to the neighbouring countries of Nepal,...

 and Jalpaiguri, in the Indian state of West Bengal

West Bengal

West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...

. The Indian city of Darjeeling is 58 km (36 mi) away to the north. Kankorvita, the Nepalese border transit point, is 61 km (37.9 mi) away and the Bhutanese border is 68 km (42.3 mi) away from the Indo-Bangladesh boundary near which Banglabandha stands.

History

Despite the geographical proximity of the borders of India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan, the issues of border control and territorial sovereignty have prevented the establishment of direct trade routes. Banglabandha was functioning as a "Land Customs Station" (LCS) before the Government of Bangladesh decided to establish an inland port. To exploit the potential of a three-way trading post, the government of Bangladesh decided to develop an inland port, with facilities such as customs, banking, warehouses, police and immigration posts. It was designed to be Bangladesh's first "export-oriented" inland port, explicitly promoting the transport of Bangladeshi goods to Nepal, India and Bhutan; other Bangladeshi inland ports are mainly used to import goods from India. Nepal favours such an inland port to enable access for its goods to the Mongla and Chittagong

Chittagong

Chittagong ) is a city in southeastern Bangladesh and the capital of an eponymous district and division. Built on the banks of the Karnaphuli River, the city is home to Bangladesh's busiest seaport and has a population of over 4.5 million, making it the second largest city in the country.A trading...

 seaports.

Function

The Banglabandha port was formally inaugurated in May 2004 but has not been fully functional owing to the absence of a transit agreement for the use of Indian territory as a transport route for Bangladeshi, Nepalese and Bhutanese trade cargoes. Nepali transport trucks are not allowed entry into Bangladesh and must exchange their cargo at the "zero point" of the Indo-Bangladesh border. Indian authorities also limit transport from Nepal to Bangladesh to only two hours a day. The existing Indo-Nepalese agreement provides for cross-border transport between the two countries, but no arrangement for use of Indian territory to link Nepal and Bangladesh. But in 2010, a joint communique issued by the Prime Minister of India

Prime Minister of India

The Prime Minister of India , as addressed to in the Constitution of India — Prime Minister for the Union, is the chief of government, head of the Council of Ministers and the leader of the majority party in parliament...

 Dr. Manmohan Singh

Manmohan Singh

Manmohan Singh is the 13th and current Prime Minister of India. He is the only Prime Minister since Jawaharlal Nehru to return to power after completing a full five-year term. A Sikh, he is the first non-Hindu to occupy the office. Singh is also the 7th Prime Minister belonging to the Indian...

 and the Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed said both countries would cooperate to provide Nepalese and Bhutanese cargo access to the Bangladeshi ports. The commerce secretaries of Nepal and Bangladesh also held high-level talks to form an agreement resolving the transit issues between the two countries.