Development / Northeast

GUWAHATI, August 4: The Federation of Industries and Commerce of North Eastern Region (FINER) has hailed the Bangladesh government's decision to allow transhipment of Indian goods through its territory. FINER president SK Jain said the Indian business community had been demanding the facility for long. Bangladesh's grant of transhipment facilities to India is a major step towards creating a regime of free movement of goods within South Asia - one of the prerequisites for the South Asia Free Trade Agreement, proposed by India under the aegis of the South Asian Association for Regional...

DHAKA, Aug 1 - Bangladesh will ask New Delhi to provide facility for transit of its goods through India to Nepal and Bhutan in lieu of the transhipment of Indian goods through its territory and seek duty-free access for 25 export products to Indian market, its commerce minister Tofail Ahmed said here today. Ahmed said Dhaka will seek duty-free access for the export products on a non-reciprocal basis when modalities for transhipment of Indian goods are discussed at the next meeting of the joint committee of experts. Ahmed said during his meeting with Indian commerce minister Ramakrishna Hegde...

DHAKA, July 31: India today said allowing its goods to pass through Bangladesh would benefit both countries and dispelled apprehension that it would jeopardise that country's national security. The proposal of allowing transhipment facilities to Indian goods approved by the Bangladesh Cabinet on July 28 does not mean a "corridor" to India or even "transit rights", the Indian deputy high commissioner to Bangladesh, Pinak R Chakravarty, told newspersons. "It is just transhipment of Indian goods to northeastern states of India by Bangladeshi companies," he said, responding to strong opposition...

UNDATED, July 28: Home ministry officials from India and Burma began their three-day talks on issues of concern to both countries in New Delhi on Wednesday. The Indian side is led by home secretary Kamal Pandey while the Burmese delegation is led by deputy home minister Brig. General Thura Myint Maung. The two sides will discuss various issues ranging from insurgency problems in the Northeast, drug trafficking and border trade. According to Indian home ministry sources, the two governments will work on ways to cooperate with each other in tackling insurgency along the international border...

DHAKA, July 28: In a major policy decision, the Sheikh Hasina government on Wednesday approved in principle to examine the issue of transportation of Indian goods through Bangladesh. A brief official announcement said the Cabinet, at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, granted the approval. India has long been pressing for a transit route to transport its goods to the seven north-eastern states through Bangladesh. The Indian proposal had sparked off widespread controversy and protests in political circles. Opposition parties said that providing transit facilities to India would...

GUWAHATI, July 27: The North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO) has proposed to generate additional power to the capacity of 475 MW during the remaining period of the Ninth Five-Year Plan. These include 405 MW of Ranganadi hydro-electric project (ongoing) in the Lower Subansiri district of Arunachal Pradesh, 25 MW from Doyang hydro-electric project (ongoing) in Nagaland and another 25 MW from Kopili hydro-electric project Stage-II in Assam. The corporation has also taken up the 60 MW capacity Tuirial hydro-electric project in Mizoram with the financial assistance from Overseas...

AIZAWL, July 22: The Union ministry of commerce has sanctioned Rs 2 cr towards constructing a complete building on the Mizoram-Myanmar border to help encourage future trans-border trade, the state minister for trade and commerce Aichhinga told the House on July 21. He said the state government was also making arrangements to develop a township near the Indo-Myanmar border to encourage trade. He said the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) was also developing infrastructural facilities to help the traders. Regarding border trade with Bangladesh, Aichhinga said a trade delegation from Dhaka would...

Itanagar, July 17: Infrastructure for promotion of tourism in the Northeast is being geared up to make the region more vibrant to attract tourists, the Union minister of state for tourism Omak Apang has said. Talking to hoteliers, restaurant owners and tour operators here on Friday, Apang said with the upgradation of the tourism directorate at Guwahati to a regional directorate, tourism would achieve a new high. The Save Eastern Himalayas, a project initiated by the external affairs ministry, he said would help cultural integration between Bhutan, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.

Agartala, July 11: An ambitious Rs 1045.75-crore project is being implemented to construct border roads and barbed wire fencing along the India-Bangladesh border which extends to a length of 4095 km. Senior state government and Union home ministry officials told UNI here on Sunday that strict vigil is being maintained along the Indo-Bangla border in view of the ongoing Kargil conflict. Special measures have been taken to foil possible ISI activities in all the bordering states, specially the North Eastern States. As the entire Indo-Bangladesh border had been prone to large-scale illegal...

Guwahati, July 11: The Centre will soon take special measures to market tourism potentiality of the northeastern region abroad to attract foreign tourists, the Union minister of state for tourism Omak Apang said on Sunday. "The initiative will be taken very soon as there is tremendous potentiality in the tourism sector which is yet to be explored," he told reporters here. Efforts are already on to involve SAARC countries in the tourism promotional efforts and stress is being put on improving the communication infrastructure in the area, he said. Apang said he had visited Bhutan and discussed...