India Bangladesh Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sheikh Hasina Wednesday jointly inaugurated three Indian-assisted development projects — Akhaura-Agartala Cross-Border Rail Link, Khulna-Mongla Port Rail Line, and Unit 2 of the Maitree Super Thermal Power Plant in Bangladesh’s Rampal — via video conferencing.

                               Bangladesh is the largest foreign recipient of India-made vaccines – 10.2 million doses, including 3.2 million as a gift. Delhi has also given 109 life-support ambulances, some of them specifically meant for Rohingya refugee camps at Cox’s Bazaar.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in March 2021 also virtually inaugurated the Bharat Bangla Maitri Bridge in Tripura’s South district, The 1.9-km bridge joins Sabroom in Tripura with Ramgarh in Bangladesh.The Maitri bridge will now facilitate access to Bangladesh’s Chittagong port, only 80 kilometres away from Sabroom.

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India and Bangladesh share 4096.7 km. of border, which is the longest land boundary that India shares with any of its neighbors.

New Delhi and Dhaka have a long standing and time-tested Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade(PIWTT), which was first signed in 1972. They renewed it in 2015 for five years, with a provision for automatic renewal for another five years, which occurred in May 2020.

Through this, two new routes were added to the India-Bangladesh protocol routes: Sonamura-Daudkandi and Daudkandi-Sonamura. The maritime connectivity was enhanced as a trial for the transhipment to India’s Northeast through Chittagong and was completed in July 2020.

 India provided medical aid to Bangladesh to tackle medical assistance for dealing with Covid-19 pandemic. Besides, they gave railway connectivity a major boost by increasing freight services in the past few months. Another important development of the period has been India providing 10 locomotives to the railways in Bangladesh as grant in aid.

They signed pacts in the areas of disaster management, trade remedial measures, supply of ICT equipment, training for digital services, and establishment of sports facilities.

Both sides also inaugurated Mitali Express, a passenger train service on the Dhaka-New Jalpaiguri-Dhaka route through the Chilahati-Haldibari rail link and announced linking the historic road between Mujibnagar and Nadia.

IRRITANTS

The Teesta water dispute remains unresolved. The Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the proposed National Register of Citizens, which Ms. Hasina called “unnecessary”, have created a negative impression about India. 

The random killing of Bangladesh nationals by the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) and trade barriers are other irritants.

The regional connectivity has been one of the most-discussed issues in recent years. Indian sought connectivity between its two states—West Bengal and Meghalaya—through Bangladesh. But the lack of reciprocity hindered significant progress in this particular area.