Trade between Bangladesh and India through Benapole land port resumed on Monday morning after a two-day suspension. The trade remained suspended on Saturday and Sunday due to the inauguration of a new passenger terminal at India’s Petrapole land port by Indian Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday. Drug smugglers thrive at Benapole as scanners remain dysfunctional Shamsur Rahman, president of the Benapole C&F Agents Association, confirmed the reopening of trade activities saying that many trucks loaded with goods queued at Petrapole to enter Benapole after the two-day break. Officer-in-Charge Imtiaz Bhuiyan of Benapole Checkpost Immigration Police said although trade remained suspended passenger movement remained undisrupted .

Drug-peddling rackets have become increasingly active at the country’s largest land port in Benapole, taking advantage of three non-functional scanning machines due to the indifference of the authorities concerned. The recovery of Phensedyl bottles and other drugs has recently increased alarmingly at the port, exposing a fragile security measure there, sources said. Despite 375 CCTVs functioning in and around the port, vigilance by intelligence, Armed Police Battalion (APBn), Ansar and personnel of private security agency Prima, it seems that the drug peddling can’t be reined in. More alarming is the recurring issue of missing goods, attributed to the absence of adequate scanning machines, including one valued at Tk 5 crore. expensive scanner was used for scanning goods-laden trucks of Bangladesh and India.On Saturday last, Ansar members recovered 49 bottles of phensedyl after chasing some drug peddlers at gate No-5. Later, a case was filed accusing some unidentified people with Benapole port station. On July 2, 99 bottles of Phensedyl were recovered from imported Indian goods at the raw material yard. Read: Indian Minister’s visit: Trade through Benapole port suspended for 2 days Helaluzzaman, an Ansar official posted at the port, said their members recovered the 49 Phensedyl bottles after noticing the suspicious movement of some people surrounding a truck. Later, the drugs were handed over to the Department of Narcotics Control (DNC), he said. A few days ago, two fingerprint machines went missing from the office of the Deputy Traffic Manager. Members of Prima were suspected to be involved. Port sources held negligence by the authorities concerned responsible for the drug peddling, making it difficult to nab the culprits. Currently, 163 Ansar members, 42 APBn personnel, and 129 staff from the private security firm Prima are on duty, in addition to 375 installed CCTV cameras. Anowar Ali Anu, Vice President of the Benapole Importers-Exporters Association, said that smugglers collect drugs from Indian goods-laden trucks or borders and distribute them throughout the country. He mentioned that the peddlers use the port as a base for smuggling, often aided by some unscrupulous officials. Read more: Indian Minister’s visit: Decision on suspending trade for 3 days through Benapole port withdrawn Shamsur Rahman, President of the Clearing & Forwarding Agent Association, emphasised the need to make the scanning machines operational to combat drug smuggling and called for increased vigilance by law enforcement. Rashedul Sajib Nazir, Deputy Director of the port, said they have raised the issue of the idle scanner machines with the higher authorities.

Trade between Bangladesh and India through the Benapole land port will remain suspended for five days from October 9 due to Durga Puja, the largest religious festival of Hindus. Despite the suspension of import-export activities, the movement of passengers between the two countries will remain uninterrupted, said Rashedul Sajib Nazir, Deputy Director of Benapole Port on Monday. Government revenue evaded through fake travel tax at Benapole customs checkpost He said they received a formal letter from India regarding the closure. According to the notice, import and export activities will be halted from Wednesday to Sunday. Normal trade activities will resume on Monday, October 14.

Rice import through Benapole land port has resumed after 10 months. A consignment of 512 tons of rice entered the port Sunday afternoon, which was released from the port Monday morning. M/S Belal Hossain and M/S Lipu Enterprise are importing rice at the rate of USD 340 per ton. Benapole customs authority has fixed import duty on fine rice at USD 450 per ton and on coarse rice at USD 380 per ton. Importers are paying Tk9.90 as import duty for every kilogram of rice. Md Motiar Rahman, Director of India-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce (IBCC), said that the government stopped importing rice from India on August 31, 2021 to ensure proper market prices of rice produced in the country. Read: Onion imports through Benapole resume after 2 months “Prices of rice shot up after recent floods in the country. The government allowed 95 importers to import 4.09 lakh mts of rice from India on June 30 to keep the rice market stable. Import of rice through the Benapole port began following  the decision,” said Motiar. Shamsur Rahman, President of Benapole C&F Agents Association, said that of the total amount of imported rice, boiled rice is 3,79,000 metric tonnes  and non-boiled rice is 30,000 metric tonnes. The food ministry has ordered to complete the LC-opening process within July 21 and marketing of the imported rice within August 11, said Shamsur. Azim Uddin, a C&F trader, said that the rice consignment had to wait 17 days in Indian part before getting access to Benapole land port. “Rice can be imported quickly if the consignments can get access to the port directly, which will in turn reduce the prices of rice in the local market,” said Azim.

Benapole Transport Agency Owners Association has called off their indefinite strike demanding adequate cranes and forklifts for the country's largest land port.  The decision to withdraw the strike scheduled to begin from Tuesday  was taken after assurance from the port authorities to fulfill the demands at a joint meeting, said Azim Uddin Gazi, general secretary of Benapole Transport Agency Owners Association. Also read: Benapole transport owners call indefinite strike from Tuesday “If the demands are not met within June 16, the association will announce stricter programmer  in this regard,” he said. Mamun Kabir Tarafdar, Deputy Director of Benapole Port said,” A decision has been taken to add three new cranes and three new forklifts within next 15 days. And within next two months all the old cranes and forklifts will be changed.” Also read: 8 held over clash at Benapole port, trade resumes Earlier, Nayan, a representative of the owners, said that almost all the cranes and forklifts at the port have become obsolete. As a result, they have to pay extra money to rent trucks every day which is causing huge losses, Nayan added.

Export-import activities between Bangladesh and India through Benapole land port resumed on Monday after two days of suspension following a strike called by several port users’ organizations. The protesters withdrew their indefinite strike, which was enforced on Saturday, after a fruitful meeting with the customs authorities. The workers of five port users’ organisations joined their work around 9 am on Monday. Read: 2 killed in separate city road accidents On March 2,  customs officials seized huge Indian contraband goods including phensidyl, explosives, cigarette, current nets, and cloths worth Tk 50 lakh from two Indian trucks. They also suspended the liscenses of two organizations including Shimul Trading Agency and IDS Group. A complaint was lodged with Benapole port in this connection. Protesting the customs officials’ move, five port users’ organisations went on an indefinite strike from Saturday and threatened to continue it until restoration of licenses of two C&F agents. Enamul Haque Lata, general secretary of Benapole C&F Agent Association, said the customs authorities assured us of meeting our demands within one week.  

The number of passport-holding passengers travelling to and from India through the Benapole land port has declined significantly for various reasons, including strict precautionary measures taken to contain the spread of the new variant of coronavirus Omicron. Bangladeshi passengers said an alarming spike in Covid cases in the neighbouring country, two times Covid test for passengers and hassles caused by brokers are the main reasons why the number of travellers is declining. Those who need to travel to India for medical, business and education purposes have been suffering a lot, they said. According to the port authorities, about 3000 passengers travelled through the land port per day on average last week, but the number of passport-holding passengers dropped to 1000 in the current week. On January 1, 375 people went to India while 709 returned from the country and on January 2, some people left the country through the port while 864 people returned home from the country. Read: All students to be vaccinated by Jan 31: Dipu Moni On January 3, the number of India-bound passengers was 491 while that of returnees was 611 and on January 4, some 442 people went to India and 639 returned. On January 5, the number of India-bound passengers was 481 while that of the returnees was 597. Port sources said some 18 lakh passengers travel to and from India for different purposes every year. On March 13, 2020, India imposed restrictions on travel due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, it allowed domestic flights from May, 2020, and the entry of foreigners except tourists from October. Abdul Jalil, deputy director (traffic) of Benapole port, said, “The number of passengers travelling to and from India and Bangladesh has dropped significantly. From January 1 to January 5, some 5,687 people traveled between the two countries.” Alarmed by the rising Omicron cases, India's federal government two weeks ago warned states that "the variant is three times more transmissible than the Delta" and directed them to take action to rein in its spread.

A devastating fire at India’s Petrapole land port has burnt 12 trucks waiting in a parking lot to enter Bangladesh’s Benapole land port with imported cotton. The fire broke out in the early hours of Sunday at Jayantipur Luxmi truck parking lot and quickly engulfed trucks parked there. However, no casualties have been reported. Read: 10 dead in India Covid hospital fire Kartik Chakraborty, general secretary of the Petrapole Port Staff Welfare Association of India, said a truck with cotton waiting to be exported to Bangladesh caught fire in the Jayantipur Lakshi truck parking lot near Petrapole port this morning. Later, fire broke out in 11 other cotton trucks nearby and they were also burnt down. The other cotton loaded trucks managed to move elsewhere, he said On information, members of the fire service arrived from Banga and Gobradanga and doused the fire at around 5 am after hours of effort. Sajedur Rahman, general secretary of the Benapole Port CNDF Agents Staff Association, said, "I have heard from traders on the other side that a fire broke out in 12 cotton loaded trucks to be imported to Bangladesh." Shri Rakesh Kumar, Deputy Director of Petrapole Port said Rs 8 crore worth of cotton was damaged in the fire. A five-member committee has been formed to probe the incident.

As many as 700 trucks carrying goods for the Indian market remain stranded on Bangladesh's side of the border at Benapole land port, due to lack of space apparently on the Indian side at Petrapole. When contacted, Joint General Secretary of Benapole Import-Export Association A. Latif said, “Everyday around 400 good-laden trucks enter Benapole to export products to the other side. But Petrapole authorities are only allowing upto 200 across, citing inadequate space.” “This has resulted in a long line of trucks in the Benapole port area  waiting to be allowed across to deliver the goods in India. The tailback is increasing with each passing day,” he added. Businessmen have pressed home their demand to the authorities in this regard to push their Indian counterparts to solve the problem as soon as possible stating that they are incurring great loss due to the status quo. Benapole Customs House Additional Commissioner Neyamul Islam confirmed to UNB that as of today, as many as 700 trucks remain stranded at what is the busiest land port between India and Bangladesh “We have contacted the Petrapole authorities. They assured us that the problem will be resolved within a week,” Neyamul added.

Forty more ambulances -- a gift from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi -- arrived in Bangladesh through the Benapole land port on Thursday morning. Additional Commissioner of Benapole Customs House, Neyamul Islam said that the 40 ambulances entered Bangladesh in the morning from the Petrapole border on the Indian side. Read: India sends 40 more ambulances to Bangladesh "Necessary paperwork is underway to get the clearance done. Once complete, the ambulances will leave for Dhaka later in the day," he said. According to the Indian High Commission, Prime Minister Modi announced the gift of 109 ambulances to Bangladesh during his state visit on March 26-27, to help bolster healthcare, especially in the shared effort to contain the Covid pandemic. All the ambulances have ventilation support, said sources. Read: 30 ambulances arrive in Bangladesh from India So far, 71 ambulances have arrived in Bangladesh and the remaining are expected to come by mid-September. Of these, the first ambulance arrived on March 21, 30 more ambulances arrived on August 7, and 40 on Thursday.