There are 250-300 Indian trucks stuck on the Bangladesh side, said Kartik Chakraborty, secretary, Clearing Agents Staff Welfare Association of Petrapole – the land port on the Indian side of the border with Bangladesh.
“At 3.30 pm today, all movement of trucks and goods – import and export – stopped. The situation is volatile in Bangladesh. There is fear and panic here too. There are about 250-300 Indian trucks at Benapole (the Bangladesh side of the land port). They are yet to unload the goods,” he said.
“We request the new Bangladesh administration to ensure the safety of the trucks, goods and drivers,” Chakraborty said. He also said that there was little movement of goods from Benapole to other parts of Bangladesh in the last few days, leading to trucks being stuck there with their cargo.
As protests in Bangladesh had turned violent last month, movement of goods through Petrapole had stopped on July 20, before resuming on July 24.
On average, 450-500 trucks move from India to Bangladesh through Petrapole – the largest land port in South Asia – every day. About 150-200 trucks come the other way. Yearly, about 22 lakh people cross the broder through the Petrapole checkpoint.
The goods exported by India through Petrapole include cotton fabrics, chassis of motor vehicles, non-alloy steel, yarn, synthetic fibers, two-wheelers, machinery parts, papers, cereals, and other food products. Jute, readymade garments, betel nut, and rice bran are among goods that India exports from Bangladesh.
Petrapole is located at Bongaon, in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district, along the International Border between India and Bangladesh, at a distance of about 80 km from Kolkata.
The Indo-Bangladesh Maitree Express, the train service that connects Kolkata and Dhaka, has remained suspended since July 19, when the student protests in the Bangladesh capital had turned violent.
Eastern Railway confirmed on Sunday that the service would remain shut at least until Tuesday.
The train service had started in April 14, 2008 – on the occasion of the Bengali New Year – and was a milestone in India-Bangladesh relations.
It covers the 400 km between Dhaka and Kolkata in around 8 hours and 50 minutes. It had previously been suspended in March 2020 due to the pandemic, but was resumed on May 29, 2022.
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