Team to visit border trade corridors with B'desh

Siliguri, Dec 22: A high level Central team will shortly visit three Indo-Bangladesh trade corridors in northern parts of West Bengal to examine the existing facilities and suggest their improvement for increasing volumn of bilateral trade material, according to state food and supply minister Paresh Adhikary.

The team comprising home ministry, agricultrue and marketing and commerce would go to Changrabandha in Coochbehar, Hili in South Dinajpur and Malda's Mehdipur border for inspection the potentialities for promotion of business and suggest to the higher authorities in New Delhi for setting necessary infrastructure like security arrangements, transport terminus, store house, banking and others, added Mr Adhikary.

He told sources that recently he and MP of Coochbehar Hiten Burman had called on Union Industry and Commerce minister Jairam Ramesh and requested him to improve the infrastructural facilities for augmentation of trade with Bangladesh.

He said the proposed visit of Central team was one of the immediate measures after they called on the union minister.

Mr Adhikary said while Petrapole in North 24-Parganas had better facility for border trade but the three areas of North Bengal had not such infrastructure.

The exporters here agitated over inadequate provisions for broder trade, the convener of Changrabandha Landport Development Committee Sunirmal Guha told sources there were even acute scarcity of drinking water in all three trade corridors.

Federation of Exporters Association vice president Uttam Karmakar said there were huge potentiality for increasing volumn of trading commodities but due to inadequate storage house and other necessasry gadgets the bilateral trade suffered tremendously.

UNI