By IANS,
Kolkata : In order to step up coastal security of India, the Indo-Bangladesh Trade Protocol Route through West Bengal has recently been changed so that it does not cross the Sundarbans, the “major area of concern”, a senior naval officer said Friday.
Due to the security reasons, the customs check post has also been shifted to closer to the Indo-Bangladesh border, said Commodore Brian A Thomas, naval officer-in-charge, West Bengal
“Earlier, the vessels would come 160 km in the internal waters till Namakhana (in Sundarbans) which would take two days to reach. During this transit, we did not know who gets down where,” Thomas told reporters here.
He said the new trade route and customs check post have been operational since the last three months.
The customs check post on the Indo-Bangladesh trade route has been shifted from Namakhana in South 24 Parganas district, to a new border check post at Hemnagar, in North 24 Parganas of the state, which is closer to the border.
Commodore Thomas said the Sundarban areas were the major area of concern for the country’s coastal security as the region was largely unmapped and had a large number of inland waterways.