Another land port is coming up at Sabrum in Tripura on the India-Bangladesh border

 

Another land port is coming up at Sabrum in Tripura on the India-Bangladesh border

If all goes well, a state-of-the-art ICP or Integrated Checkpost is going to be inaugurated on the border of India and Bangladesh on February 24 (Saturday) at Sabrum in Tripura. 

Top government officials in Delhi hinted to the Bengali Tribune that the two Prime Ministers of India and Bangladesh, Narendra Modi and Sheikh Hasina, will attend the inauguration ceremony virtually that morning. Under one roof of ICP, there are all kinds of arrangements from customs, immigration to container transshipment, warehouse, etc., 

so that trade and movement between the two countries can be possible. The launch of this 'ICP' means the commencement of another modern land port between India and Bangladesh at the border town of Sabroom. 

At the moment, the largest ICP between the two countries is on the Petrapol-Benapol border. But experts feel that there will be no surprise if the volume of trade and passenger traffic on Sabrum-Ramgarh exceeds even that in the coming days. However, there are certain reasons for this. 

Sabrum is less than 80 kilometers from the commercial capital of Bangladesh and the port city of Chittagong by road. Sabrum 100 from Matarbari deep sea port under construction in Bangladesh Within kilometers. India got the permission to use Chittagong port long ago. 

As a result, it is likely that Sabroom will soon become the main 'gateway' or entry point for the movement of goods to the Northeast region of India. 

When Matarbari becomes operational in three years, the 'traffic' through Sabrum will increase as usual.Moreover, a 1.9 km long friendship bridge has also been constructed on the Feni river at the India-Bangladesh border at Sabrum. Narendra Modi and Sheikh Hasina jointly inaugurated this bridge on March 21, 2021.

But the use of this bridge could not be started as ICP was not ready then. Now if the ICP is launched, the busyness of this friendship bridge will increase a lot. Railways have also opened up to Sabrum, the station with which the broad gauge railway connection to the rest of India is made. 

Simply put, Sabrum is just waiting for the ICP to be launched – which is expected to open up a new horizon in terms of bilateral trade and people-to-people contact between India and Bangladesh. Aditya Mishra, 

chairman of the Land Ports Authority of India (LPAI), which oversees the operations of land ports in India, visited Sabroom last month to see how far the work of the ICP is on the ground. Secretary of the Ministry Vivek Verma, Director General of BSF in Tripura Piyush Patel along with top officials were also present on that visit. 

When the meeting was held exactly a month ago, the work of the ICP on the Indian side was roughly 90 percent complete, but about 10 percent work was left. And some parts of the road connecting Sabrum towards Bangladesh were left to work. 

But in the last three-four weeks that work has been completed almost at a whirlwind pace and after that February 24 has been fixed as the probable date for the inauguration of the ICP. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at the groundbreaking ceremony of the ICP in Sabrum three years ago, said that increasing 'connectivity' between India and Bangladesh is not just about friendship - it is also about creating new trade and traffic corridors. 

Spread over 49 acres of land, Sabrum's integrated check post between Bangladesh and India's north-eastern region is set to achieve just that.- Bengali Tribune