The move, if successful, will enable New Delhi to counterbalance China’s growing strategic presence in India’s immediate neighbourhood and give it management of ports in both western and eastern part of the Indian Ocean Region as the net security provider, according to persons familiar with the development.
The matter that could be a milestone in the partnership is expected to figure when PM Narendra Modi meets PM Sheikh Hasina here over the weekend, it has been learnt. Later this month or early July, the Bangladesh PM plans to visit India on a state visit. Hasina congratulated Modi on Tuesday night itself following the BJP-led NDA’s third straight victory in Lok Sabha elections.China has been urging Hasina to include Beijing as well in her itinerary but she is not keen to make that trip before her India visit.
New Delhi stood by her, providing legitimacy to her government after every election there amid western allegations of “one-sided polls”. Hasina, along with leaders from Nepal, Bhutan, Mauritius and Sri Lanka, have been invited for the government’s swearing in ceremony. Chinese moves to manage key infrastructure projects in India’s immediate neighbourhood is a matter of discomfort for India, sources explained. Cross-border connectivity projects and business initiatives will figure high when Modi meets his counterparts here over the weekend.
India already has transhipment access to both Chittagong and Mongla ports for moving cargo to northeastern states, skipping the 1,650 kilometre chicken’s neck corridor. Last month, an Indian delegation from India Ports Global Limited, headed by its managing director Sunil Mukundan, visited Mongla Port to study the operational facilities in detail, ET has learnt. If the negotiations proceed successfully, Mongla will be the third international seaport operation taken up by India after Chabahar Port in Iran and Sittwe in Myanmar, which both are managed by India Ports Global Limited (IPGL). In Sri Lanka, an Indo-Russian joint venture has got management rights of the airport in the vicinity of the China-managed Hambantota port.IPGL has been asked to submit a detailed written proposal to the Mongla Port Authority for consideration. The representative of the Mongla Port Authority said the delegation was informed that after receiving the proposal it would be evaluated and if found profitable then would be sent to the government for a decision.
Mongla Port operates container and bulk carrier vessels at its five jetties. Construction of two more jetties is being planned for handling increased volume of cargo generated thanks to transshipment facilities given to India, Nepal and Bhutan.
