Bangladesh border trade review at Petropole

New Delhi, June 16: Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh will be visiting Petrapole on June 19, accompanied by a high level delegation of officials, to review the border trade with Bangladesh.

Petrapole is the border point on the Indian side in West Bengal and is the main trade route by road between India and Bangladesh. All Bangladesh exports to India and 80 per cent Indian exports to Bangladesh go through Petrapole.

Mr Ramesh will have a site visit and meet the officials concerned.

Members of the delegation include Veena Sikri, High Commissioner of India in Dhaka, R S Sirohi, Additional Secretary (Border Management), in the Ministry of Home Affairs, MVPC Sastry, Joint Secretary, Department of Commerce and other senior officials from the Ministry of Finance, Railways, Central Warehousing Corporation, Border Security Force and Government of West Bengal.

The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India had set up six working groups on Indo-Bangladesh trade when Prime Minister Khaleda Zia had visited India.

The report of these groups has since been submitted to the Commerce Ministry.

UNI