Coal import has started through the Gobrakura-Karhaitli land port of Haluaghat bordering Mymensingh amid tension in Bangladesh-India relations.
India and Indonesia have been exporting coal to Bangladesh for a long time. Haluaghat businessmen were not interested in importing Indian coal due to low price of coal imported from Indonesia for the past few years. Only 964 tonnes of coal was imported from India last April this year. Since then, the traders stopped the import completely.
India's recent interest in coal exports was welcomed by businessmen of the country. A seven-member delegation of businessmen including Vijay Singh Joshi, former president and current advisor of Meghalaya State Coal Exporters Association, visited Bangladesh on Thursday. Businessmen of the country had a closed-door meeting with them at Haluaghat on Friday.
Ashok Kumar Sarkar Apu, Secretary General of Karaitli Gobrakura Import-Export Group, said that a seven-member business delegation including Vijay Singh Joshi, president and current advisor of Meghalaya State Coal Exporters Association, had a meeting with local businessmen. Vijay Singh Joshi has promised to export coal at full speed claiming the Haluaghat land port as the lifeblood of business.
He said, 'coal import has started experimentally from last Wednesday through two land ports. Hopefully, within a week, coal import will start in full swing.'
Ashok Kumar said that there are about 5000 workers including more than 400 businessmen at the land port. They had to live an inhumane life as business was closed for a long time. Two land ports will become festive after overcoming this drought.
Haroon or Rashid Sohail, a member of the Karaitli Coal and Coke Importers Association, said that India is showing interest in exporting coal to Bangladesh this year. Hence the traders of the two land ports have already started LC operations. This year LC per tonne of coal has to be done through banks at $115. Apart from this, there are other costs including tax, load-unload. The cost seems a bit high but due to the demand, there will be fair business. Workers can also turn around. Although the business was good in 2022-23 financial year, due to various reasons coal export was stopped, traders and workers faced losses.
Partha Ghosh, assistant director in charge of Karaitli-Gobrakura port, said that coal import has already started. This is good news for traders in both countries. 96 tonnes of coal arrived last Wednesday and 72 tonnes yesterday through the two land ports. It will take about a week to start importing coal in full swing.
Import of coal from India started in 1979 and 1997 through Gobrakura customs station. The operations of the two land ports were officially inaugurated on 15 September 2012. But due to infighting among Indian exporters and traders and lawsuits by Indian environmentalists, coal exports from the country stopped. As against 372 LCs of 360 traders from 2017 to 2022, 39,000 tonnes of coal was stuck in India at the land ports of Karaitli and Gobrakura. Both the ports were declared full-fledged land ports on March 11 last year.
