India wants to use Bangladesh ports to supply LPG in northeastern states

India aims to supply energy to its northeastern states using Bangladesh's two seaports and land territory.

Initially, LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) will be sent to Tripura by using Mongla Port.

According to different sources in the two countries, Bangladeshi trucks will carry LPG to Agartala from the port.

Beximco LPG Unit-1 Ltd, a venture of Beximco Group, will help India to transport LPG to Tripura from Mongla, confirmed a Beximco official. The company already had a trial run last month.

New Delhi and Dhaka are likely to sign a Standard Operational Procedure (SOP) in a month that will allow India to use Chattogram and Mongla ports for transporting cargos to its northeastern region.

Bangladesh shipping ministry officials said both countries are moving fast to finalise a draft of the SOP.

"A team from the ministry returned from New Delhi last week after discussing the modalities of the SOP with Indian counterparts. Now we will finalise the draft and put forward for approval, which will take at least one month," Bhola Nath Dey, additional secretary to the shipping ministry, told The Business Standard.

He said India will pay various kinds of fees for using Bangladeshi ports, land territory, and other infrastructure.

"Everything will be mentioned in the SOP," he added.

The two countries had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the use of the two ports during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Dhaka in June 2015.

According to the MoU, goods will be transported as per the capacity of the two seaports, and only Bangladeshi vehicles will be used to transport the goods within its territory.

Indian goods will be transported through four entry points – Akhaura in Bangladesh's Brahmanbaria and Agartala in India's Tripura; Tamabil in Sylhet and Dawki in Meghalaya; Sheola in Sylhet and Sutarkandi in Assam; and Bibirbazar in Cumilla and Srimantapur in Tripura.

According to a report of the Outlook, an Indian news magazine, India is expected to get LPG from the Middle East with the help of a Bangladeshi private company.

"Within a month, LPG imported from the Middle East will directly reach Tripura through Bangladesh's Mongla Port. It will be transported by road to the Bishalgarh bottling plant," reported Outlook, quoting Debashish Basu, secretary for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumers' Affairs, Tripura.

Currently, LPG is taken to Tripura from Guwahati, which is 600km away, and Silchar, which is 287km away. This is difficult and time-consuming. Transporting goods through Bangladesh is more viable for India.

Beximco LPG Unit-1 Ltd had a trial run last month when a tanker with LPG was taken to Tripura from Mongla Port. M Muntasir Alam, chief commercial officer of Beximco LPG confirmed the information.

"During the trial run, we faced some problems, including poor infrastructure for which the tanker took much time than we expected," he said.

"We are now working on issues like how much LPG can be delivered monthly and what will be the carrying cost," he added.

He said the company will go for a long term contract after assessing everything by September.

Beximco has an LPG plant in Mongla of Bagerhat with a production capacity of almost 100,000 tonnes per year. The plant has a storage capacity of 3,000 tonnes LPG, with an extension for another 3,000 tonnes of storage.