SME Times News Bureau | 16 Nov, 2015
In a bid to promote coastal
shipping, India and Bangladesh on Sunday inked the Standard Operating
Procedure (SOP) to operationalise the "Agreement on Coastal Shipping"
they signed in June.
This will enhance trade by bringing down the cost of transportation of EXIM (Export-Import) cargo.
"Once
it is operational, the coastal shipping agreement will enable a huge
saving in logistic costs of EXIM transport between the two countries,"
union Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari said in a statement.
"The
SOP has been framed as per the terms and conditions of the agreement on
coastal Shipping and both India and Bangladesh have agreed to its
provisions," Gadkari said after officials from both the sides inked the
SOP.
"The opening of coastal shipping between India and
Bangladesh would enable the movement of cargo to the northeast through
coastal shipping up to Chittagong and thereafter by road/inland
waterways," the statement said.
"The deep draft ports on the
eastern coast of India can be 'hub ports' for the onward transportation
of cargo to Bangladesh via the coastal mode through RSV category of
vessels," it added.
