AGARTALA, March 3 (TIWN): Construction of Waterway for importing goods from Bangladesh through River Feni over bridge is underway.

The construction of 150-metre bridge on river Feni at a cost of Rs. 110 crore to connect the land locked State with Chittagong port in Bangladesh, the preliminary work, including making Detailed Project Report. It is to be mentioned here that to access Bangladeshi ports to carry goods and heavy machineries for the northeast region is underway.

The construction of bridge over River Feni would boost the connectivity between two countries, India and Bangladesh. After completion, the bridge, located north of the Chittagong international sea port, would provide a significant road link to India's north-eastern states and facilitate greater trade and exchanges between the two countries.  

The Tripura government has been asking the central government to take all possible steps to ensure access to Bangladeshi ports to ferry men and material to and fro mountainous north-eastern states and other parts of India via Bangladesh.

The Left Front government had asked Modi to persuade Bangladesh to provide access to its water and land routes to transport men and goods for India's north-eastern states when the prime minister visited Tripura on December 1. Access to the Chittagong port and Ashuganj river port in Bangladesh are crucial for the northeastern states to ferry men and materials," Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar has been saying at all forums. 

During Modi's Dhaka visit, India and Bangladesh signed a memorandum of understanding promising that Bangladesh would allow use of Chittagong sea port and Mongla river port for the movement of goods to and from India and Mongla ports might be used by waterways, rail, road or multi-modal transport.

The Food Corporation of India had recently ferried 35,000 tonnes of rice in different phases to Tripura from Visakhapatnam port in Andhra Pradesh and Kolkata port via Bangladesh using the Ashuganj river ports and Bangladesh highways.

In 2012, Bangladesh had allowed the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation to ferry heavy machinery, turbines and over-dimensional cargoes through Ashuganj port for the 726-MW Palatana mega power project in southern Tripura.

Transportation via Bangladesh is much easier, as road connectivity is a major issue for the mountainous north-eastern states which share boundaries with Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan and China.