Following announcement of lockdown by West Bengal state government till 27th Mar’20, operations at petrapole port (dry port of India & Bangladesh) is being closed till further notice.
Petrapole port is the transit port of India & Bangladesh, where movement of goods have been halted from 23rd to 27th Mar’20, also sources are assuming it may extend further due to COVID-19 fears in the country.
“Considering the recent emergent situation developing due to the spread of COVID-19 and also honouring the social consciousness mission of both govt of India & govt of West Bengal, we Petrapole Cleaning Agents’ stuff welfare association have decided to suspend all EXIM operations with Bangladesh with petrapole border today from 23rd to 27th Mar’20, which may be udate from time to time by following latest circular of our government”, the letter said.
Further exporters in Kolkata stated, “looking at this situation, the LC has been delayed by most of Bangladeshi mills for recent sponge iron export bookings.
They believe that, the fresh deals are likely to be slow down, also there is fear among participants that previous deals may get cancelled if suspension of operations in dry port extend further.”
Petrapole is the Indian side of Petrapole-Benapole border checkpoint between India and Benapole of Bangladesh, on the Bangladesh-India border, near Bongaon in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal.
Petrapole border is the only land port in south Bengal. It is also the largest land customs station in Asia.
Out of total sponge iron exports from India, contribution of Bangladesh is about 50-55%. Bangladesh imported about 457,862 MT (52.5%), followed by Bhutan at 175,467 MT (20.1%) & Nepal at 147,500 MT (16.9%) during Jan-Dec’19.
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