Circular No.19/2022 dated 14 September 2022 

• Reference is invited to Circular No. 42/2018-Customs dated November 02, 2018, as amended vide Circular No. 08/2020-Customs dated February 05, 2020 and Circular No. 29/2020-Customs dated June 22, 2020, which prescribes a procedure for transhipment of Bangladesh’s export cargo to third countries via India. The said Circular provides that export goods of Bangladesh may enter India from specified Land Customs Stations and travel by road/rail in closed containers or closed bodied trucks up to specified airport/seaports from where the goods shall be exported to third countries.
• Representations have now been received from trade for providing a similar transhipment facility to Bangladesh’s export cargo through India using a combination of waterways and land routes. It has been suggested to allow export goods of Bangladesh to enter India through the riverine Land Customs Station of Hemnagar move up to Kolkata or Haldia port using waterways, and thereafter cross through the Indian territory by rail up to Nhava Sheva or Mundra port, from where the goods would be exported to third countries by sea route.
• With a view to facilitating the trade and leveraging the potential of inland waterways for enhancing trade and transit, it has been decided to allow the transhipment of containerized export goods of Bangladesh through India using riverine and rail routes, entailing two legs of movements as follows:

1. The first leg involves entry of containerized cargo into India through LCS Hemnagar from where the goods shall be transported to the sea port of Kolkata or Haldia on a barge/vessel using the riverine route agreed under the Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade between India and Bangladesh (IBP route): and
2. The second leg involves unloading of containers from the barge/vessel and further loading on a railway train at the sea port of Kolkata or Haldia, from where the goods will travel by rail to the sea port of Nhava Sheva or Mundra for export to third countries.