Even as perennial crisis of fuel and essentials in the North Eastern states loom large for frequent disruptions of road and rail communications for rains and floods, Bangladesh government has come forward with a helping hand for the region.
The Indian High Commission in Dhaka in a tweet said that a memorandum of understanding had been signed between Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) has signed an MoU with the Bangladesh Roads and Highways Department on Wednesday to transport petroleum and petro products. The tweet said : The The Petroleum/LPG road tankers will enter from Meghalaya and go to Tripura. IOCL will bear all administrative fees, charges, local tolls & expenses including road usage fee for use of Bangladesh territory.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also in a tweet said : With a spirit of good neighborhood, GoB has decided to allow Indian vehicles for transportation of fuel from the Indian State of Assam to Tripura by road which has been severely disrupted due to recent floods in Assam and Tripura. To this effect, an MoU has been signed today.
Tripura and Mizoram had earlier approached the Ministry of External Affairs to take up with Bangladesh government for transportation of essential supplies and fuel via their territory as both the states were facing severe problems for total disruptions of road and rail connectivities via hilly regions with the onset of monsoon and heavy rains.
The MoU is expected to help the region especially landlocked Tripura to a great extent to meet the frequent fuel and essential commodities’ crisis due to transportation problems through the highly precarious National Highway during the rainy seasons.
The MoU was signed in Dhaka on Wednesday as the Indian government made a request to Bangladesh government for emergency ferrying petroleum and other products through Bangladesh’s territory when rail and road transportation gets disrupted during monsoon.
The MoU envisaged an interim arrangement to facilitate urgent ferrying of petroleum products.
Earlier also , Bangladesh allowed trans border transportation of fuel and other petroleum products to Tripura railway lines and tracks and roads were damaged due to landslides and floods caused by heavy rains.
It is learnt that the petroleum and petro products would be ferried through Dawki (Meghalaya)-Bangladesh-Kailashahar (Tripura) route.
