PrintFriendlyOn October 27th, Union Home Minister Amit Shah inaugurated a new state of the art passenger terminal and cargo facilities at Petrapole border on the Indian side of the Petrapole-Benapole land border crossing. On the face of it this is just another infrastructure story. Or to the sceptics in the opposition, another opportunity for ribbon cutting.
But that would be a gross and fundamental underestimation of the significance of this event. This article is an attempt to put things in the right perspective. For this author, this has even greater significance given his personal efforts associated with some of the objectives that was achieved with the inaugaration of this new infrastructure.
India’s most important land-border: Critical to regional economic and geopolitical interests
But before we get into the details of what makes this event so significant, let us first understand the importance of this particular border crossing. The Benapole-Petrapole border is the largest land-border in South Asia. Every year it handles close to 150 thousand crores INR worth of trade, accounting for close to 30% of India’s trade with Bangladesh by value. Petrapole is also critical in servicing the only working regional value-chain in South Asia. Indian intermediate supplies of yarn, fabric dyes and accessories feed into the ready-made garments industry in Bangladesh. Several Indian textile firms and independent entrepreneurs have invested in the Bangladeshi RMG industry
Close to 2.5 million passengers use this border every year. This would make it the 8 busiest port of entry into India handling more international passenger than many airports. In other words, it has huge economic significance in terms of management of both cargo as well as passenger volumes. It is important to understand the importance of the passenger movement to India’s economy. Bangladesh is India’s second largest source of tourists after the United States.
A very large number of these Bangladeshi visitors come to India for availing health and education services. This represents Indian exports of health and education services to Bangladesh. A very large number of such visitors are also traders who visit wholesale markets across the country making purchases for re-sale in Bangladesh. This individual trader led exports from India are not captured in the official data for Indian exports to Bangladesh. Bangladeshi religious tourists, whether Muslims bound for holy sites such as Ajmer or Nizamuddin in Delhi, or Sanatanis visiting pilgrimage sites across India also add to India’s tourism services exports.
It is obvious that Petrapole plays a crucial role role in ensuring that India remains Bangladesh’s most important economic partner. More importantly, access to Indian education and health services play an important role in pushing forward India’s goodwill and socio-cultural influence. These ‘softpower’ elements always play a very important role, especially in times of crisis.
Prior to 2014: A story of callous neglect
One would have imagined that India’s most important landport would have been a priority for India’s government. This was hardly the case. As trade and passenger movement started to increase rapidly starting the 1990s it started to become increasingly clear that the infrastructure available at the Petrapole border was woefully inadequate to handle both passenger and cargo traffic. As early as 2001, a World Bank study had ranked Benapole-Petrapole as one of the worst land border crossings in the world[i]. Initial attempts by NDA I government during 2002-03 met with resistance from Left Front supported local strongmen who ran a ‘facilitation racket’. The long-lines of trucks, lack of proper facilities for truckers and passengers, and poor management of cargo movement where all opportunities for rent-seeking. A protection racket that included extraction of money from traders and truckers and smuggling thrived in this eco-system.
Between 2004 and 2015, this author produced several research reports with key recommendations on how to modernize this landport, and transform it from one of the worst in the world to a shining example of what is possible in India[ii]. These recommendations were not complicated. It included simple interventions related to the use of technology and automation for screening of trucks and cargo, improved security, adequate parking, and humane conditions for people, whether passengers or truckers. It needs to be noted that World Bank, ADB and other institutions also continued to report on the pathetic condition of this landport.
A major impediment to efficient operations in South Asian landports continues to be the absence of a Motor Vehicles Agreement that would allow trucks of South Asian countries to operate in each other’s territories. In other words an Indian or Bangladeshi truck would be able to cross the border and carry the cargo all the way to its destination. Absence of such an agreement has resulted in goods being having to be trans-shipped at the border between trucks of two countries. But this required even more proactive facilitation initiatives. But no serious action was forthcoming from the UPA Government.
Incremental and steady reform since 2015
The NDA II government led by Prime Minister Modi took up the challenge of transforming one of the worst rated landports in the world to an example of efficiency. The Petrapole landport on the Indian side was developed into a full fledged integrated check post (ICP) with new warehouses, a large new parking plaza, and introduction of modern equipment for cargo handling. This upgraded facility was inaugurated by the Hon’ble Prime Minister, along with Ms. Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister of Bangladesh in July, 2016.
At the same time, realizing that development of cheap road freight networks was essential to South Asian economic integration, and this required the ability of trucks to cross-borders, Prime Minister Modi launched the Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal (BBIN) Motor Vehicles Agreement (MVA). Negotiations related to the MVA made significant progress, and pilot run of trucks under revised MVA rules allowing trucks to cross-borders were undertaken. The new model rules considered the use of automation such as machine reading of vehicle numbers, use of weigh in motion weighment, and use of RFID electronic seals that meant trucks did not have to stopped or inspected at the border, having been customs cleared from wherever they were coming from.
The author can take some pride in being one of the experts who contributed to these model procedures. The author was the also responsible for executing the first pilot model run under the MVA[iii]. A truck carrying cargo for Bangladesh and also for NE India (to be trans-shipped) through the much shorter transit route through Bangladesh to the NE left Kolkata, travelled though Petrapole and Benapole to Dhaka and the continued on to the Akhaura border in Tripura to re-enter India and deliver another shipment at Agartala. Unfortunately, BBIN MVA is yet to take-off. Negotiations have been slow largely due to geopolitical reasons.
Suvidha Portal: Cooperative Federalism at work
Yet another milestone towards improving the operational efficiency at the Petrapole border was the launch of the Suvidha portal that allowed pre-booking of parking slots by trucks and online payment in June 2022. This has eliminated the menace of local strongmen harassing truckers and creating artificial shortage of parking space to extract money from them. The earlier Left front supported local strongmen had been replaced by those supported by Trinamool Congress. Thus, convincing the West Bengal government of the importance of freeing up this strategic infrastructure from such petty organized crime can be seen as a major victory of persistent and patient practice of cooperative federalism by the NDA government in the centre. As a matter of fact, the West Bengal government has received a gold award in the Government Process Reengineering for Digital Transformation category at the national conference of e-governance that held in Indore.
Maitri Dwar: Small beginnings towards a greater vision of regional economic connectivity
Progress on the BBIN MVA has been slow due to geopolitical reasons. Since seamless cross-border movement of trucks are not yet possible, another critical reform was to allow Indian and Bangladeshi trucks to meet at a common zone to allow easier and efficient trans-shipment of trucks. The Maitri Dwar is a Joint Cargo gate at zero line agreed by both the countries where trucks from both sides can operate in neutral territory allowing for efficient trans-shipment. Several of the recommended technology enabled features mentioned in the reports (including by this author) has been included in the Maitri Dwar. These include:
- Access controlled entry and exit points for Indian and Bangladeshi trucks with boom barriers
- Access control is automated through the use of Automatic Number Plate Recognition or ANPR technology and facial recognition camaras
- Full CCTV coverage of neutral zone at the zero line where trans-shipment operations will take place, ensuring effective oversight to protect against any illegal activities
- Joint cargo gate supports greater cooperation and joint operation between Indian and Bangladeshi customs
What readers need to realize is that the building blocks of a future seamless system of cross-border truck movement is being put in place in anticipation of BBIN MVA becoming operational. The BBIN MVA is the first step. The longer-term objective is the BIMSTEC MVA that would allow seamless road freight movement between South and South-East Asia, allowing operations connecting economic clusters in Thailand such as Bangkok with India via major centres in Myanmar such as Yangon and Mandalay. This is an essential geopolitical and economic goal if India is to successfully counter China’s influence in its expanded neighbourhood in SE Asia. China has been aggressively pushing its influence through its Belt and Road Initiative. Thus, Maitri Dwar is a seemingly innocuous peg in the overall economic and geopolitical vision of connecting India with SE Asia, i.e., India’s Act East Policy.
State of the Art Passenger Terminal: From Second Class to Best in Class
The new passenger terminal at Petrapole is designed to reflect the grandeur of modern international airports. This in line with Prime Minster Modi’s vision of making available best in class infrastructure to all Indians, across walks of life. The rapid transformation of railway stations across India is a great example of this. Prime Minister Modi has made it clear that well maintained world-class infrastructure should not be restricted to metro airports used mostly by well-heeled passengers, but to all Indian citizens.
In keeping with this vision, Petrapole passenger terminal is therefore equipped with all modern facilities such as VIP lounges, duty free shop, medical facility, infant/baby feeding room, and several food and beverages outlets. With a passenger handling capacity of 20,000 per day, the terminal will house immigration, customs, and security services under one roof.
This a move away from India that had a set feudal hierarchy. In that old India, metro airports were somewhat well provided for and had some glitz (though a far cry from the quality available today). Smaller town airports were mostly decrepit but had some facilities and were kept clean. Rail stations, and even more so bus stations, had poor infrastructure, limited maintenance, and sub-standard cleanliness. Rail and bus passengers were made to feel like second class citizens. All that has changed under NDA II.
The Petrapole Story: A great example of why leadership with both vision and action matters
The Petrapole story is therefore a great example of the radical change in governance philosophy that took place under Prime Minister Modi. India’s economic and geopolitical priorities has been incrementally and steadily pushed forward despite many geopolitical hurdles. Vision did not remain confined to drawing boards and seminar rooms, it resulted in actual projects on the ground.
The landport in Petrapole has been provided with the infrastructure and technology enabled facilitation reforms that had been pending for years. And it has been done in a manner that it is integral to the planned operational design for seamless road freight movement across South and South-East Asia in the longer-run. This combination of steady short-term initiatives being implemented, but not in some ad-hoc manner, but as a part of a larger longer-term national interest has been Prime Minister Modi’s signature in a large number of policy areas, this being no exception.
It is also a story of rejection of a feudal hierarchical worldview where comfort and ease of living was reserved for the chosen few. It was precisely this mentality that led one former Minister of the UPA regime (a former UN official) to dub the economy class of air-travel as ‘cattle-class’. And another individual, the son-in-law of the Indian National Congress first family, mocked India’s common citizen’s as ‘mango men’. Prime Minister Modi has led from the front in the rejection of such feudal thinking that has no place in a modern, democratic, republican India. India’s shining new railway terminals, and now India’s first state of the art landport in Petrapole underline this change.
As for this author-he can only feel the deepest of gratitude for his Prime Minister and the collective leadership of this government. At a meeting of experts and business executives several years ago, he had sat quietly as officials from World Bank and ADB pointed out the many shortcomings at Petrapole, and the lack of any serious attempt at reform, their tone almost mocking. As a proud Indian nationalist, hailing from West Bengal, he wanted to protest! But how? Everything those officials were saying were largely true. But all that has changed now. Thank you Prime Minister Modi sir, thank you for giving us back our swabhimaan!
References:
[i] Lakshmanan, T. R., Uma Subramanian, William P. Anderson, and Fannie A. Léutier, Integration of Transport and Trade Facilitation: Selected Regional Case Studies, World Bank, 2001
[ii] List of works by this author on the topic of importance of efficient regional logistics and trade facilitation, and the centrality of Petrapole-Benapole land-border for this objective
- Sub-regional Co-operation in Eastern India and Bangladesh: Prospects, Problems and Policies, Review of Market Integration, Vol. 1 No. 1, 2009
- Connecting South Asia: The Centrality of Trade Facilitation for Regional Economic Integration (with Jayanta Roy), in Promoting Economic Cooperation in South Asia: Beyond SAFTA, edited volume by Sadiq Ahmed, Saman Kalegama and Ejaz Ghani, World Bank, 2010
- Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal Motor Vehicles Agreement: Unlocking the Potential for Vibrant Regional Road Freight Connectivity, CUTS Discussion Paper, 2015
- Final Report of BBIN MVA First Pilot Run by Deutsche Post DHL Group, Submitted to Asian Development Bank (ADB), 2015
- Operationalizing Connectivity and Trade Facilitation: Role of BBIN Motor Vehicles Agreement, Asian Journal of Transport and Development, Vol 19, No.2, September, 2016
- Transforming Logistics Performance in BBIN Countries: Towards Creating a Lasting Legacy, CUTS Discussion Paper, 2020
- Improving Land Connectivity Around the Bay Of Bengal is Essential for Integration, Asia Pacific Bulletin, No. 562, East-West Center, Washington DC, 2021
- Conceptualizing Highly Facilitated Trade Corridors in Southern Asia, in Connectivity and Cooperation in the Bay of Bengal Region, edited volume by Constantino Xavier and Amitendu Palit, Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP), 2023
- Strengthening Regional Integration in South Asia: Towards Highly Facilitated Trade Corridors (with Atul Sanganeria), Journal of Land Ports and Border Economy, Issue No. 2, 2023
[iii] The author was at that time serving as the Senior Director South Asia for Deutsche Post DHL Group, one of the world’s largest logistics MNCs. It was in this capacity that the author took the lead to conceptualize and execute the first pilot run for cargo operations under BBIN MVA