Cabinet okays draft of deal on coastal shipping with India

The cabinet yesterday approved a draft agreement, a draft bill, and a proposal involving coastal shipping between Bangladesh and India and installation of Rooppur nuclear power plant in Pabna.

Implementation of the agreement on coastal shipping will save time and cost of transportation of cargo through sea and river routes between the two neighbours, Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told reporters after the cabinet meeting at the Secretariat.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was in the chair.

The agreement, which was formally initiated by the two sides on April 20, will be signed during the upcoming visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Bangladesh.

The cabinet secretary said, "Once the agreement is signed, both countries will be benefited, as there'll be increased economic cooperation and connectivity."

Currently, both Bangladesh and India have to transport goods between them via Colombo or Singapore but the agreement will facilitate cargo vessels of both countries to travel directly to the ports of each other.

Bhuiyan said a Bangladeshi cargo ship would need four to five days to reach India instead of two to three weeks, the current travel time.

However, war ships, and vessels of research, scientific or oceanographic, and of paramilitary forces will remain outside the purview of the agreement.

For its implementation, a standard operating procedure (SOP) is being prepared, he said.

The secretary said initially the tenure of the agreement would be five years with provisions of automatic renewal but both sides could terminate it through a six months' prior notice.

A joint commission will review the agreement from time to time, he added.

ROOPPUR PLANT

The draft of the "Nuclear Power Plant Bill 2015", subject to a review by the law ministry, is aimed at constructing the country's first nuclear power plant, at Rooppur in Pabna.

The cabinet also gave nod to a proposal about the creation of the "Nuclear Power Company of Bangladesh", which will be the operating agency of the plant.

The Rooppur project, involving Tk 5,087.81 crore with a project aid of Tk 4,000 crore from Russia's government, would get technical support from Russia. With an initial capacity of generating 1,000MW, the facility is expected to go into operation by 2021.

Talking about the bill, the cabinet secretary said it was an international practice to have a firm legal framework to implement such high-tech, complicated, and capital-intensive projects.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will monitor the project to ensure security and safety of the power plant, he said.

Earlier, Bangladesh signed two agreements with Russia -- for cooperation and for loan.

The proposal for creating the nuclear power company was drafted following the guidelines of the IAEA and in consultation with local and international experts. It was proposed that the implementing country has to have two organisations -- owner and operator. In the case of Rooppur plant, Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission would act as owner organisation and "Nuclear Power Company of Bangladesh" as operating agency.