UPPSC 2020 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 71 of 150

Correct — D, Chattogram (Chittagong) Port. On 16 July 2020 India flagged off (in a virtual ceremony) the first trial container shipment from Netaji Subhash Dock, Kolkata (Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port) bound for Agartala in Tripura, routed through Chattogram Port in Bangladesh. Four containers — carrying TMT steel bars and pulses — sailed to Chattogram and were then carried by road on Bangladeshi trucks to Agartala, arriving around 23-24 July 2020. The transit was made possible by the Agreement on the Use of Chattogram and Mongla Ports (ACMP) for movement of Indian goods through Bangladesh, which lets India reach the landlocked North-East cheaply instead of taking the long detour through the narrow Siliguri 'Chicken's Neck' corridor.

• (a)Benapole — Benapole is a land port on the India-Bangladesh border (opposite Petrapole in West Bengal) that handles road-based cross-border trade — it is not a seaport, so a container ship could not be routed 'through' it.
• (b)Maloti — Not a Bangladeshi seaport used for this transit; the ACMP corridor works through Bangladesh's main seaports, Chattogram and Mongla, so this is a distractor.
• (c)Payra — Payra (in Patuakhali) is Bangladesh's newest, third seaport, but the July 2020 first trial shipment was routed through Chattogram, not Payra.

Because India's North-Eastern states are almost cut off from the mainland by the thin Siliguri Corridor, India has negotiated transit rights through Bangladesh. The Agreement on the Use of Chattogram and Mongla Ports (ACMP) allows Indian cargo to be shipped to these Bangladeshi seaports and then trucked to the North-East, dramatically shortening the route.

The trap lies in mixing up Bangladesh's land ports and seaports. Only a seaport can receive a container ship; Benapole is a land customs station, and Payra, though a seaport, was not the one used. Anchor 'first Kolkata-Agartala transit container ship (July 2020) = via Chattogram Port under ACMP'.

• First trial container shipment flagged off 16 July 2020, Kolkata to Agartala via Chattogram Port
• Enabled by the Agreement on Use of Chattogram & Mongla Ports (ACMP), Bangladesh
• Cargo: 4 containers of TMT steel bars and pulses; road leg Chattogram to Agartala by Bangladeshi trucks
• Cuts distance and cost to landlocked North-East India, bypassing the narrow Siliguri 'Chicken's Neck' corridor

• Confusing land ports (Benapole/Petrapole) with seaports (Chattogram/Mongla)
• Mixing up Payra (Bangladesh's newest port) with Chattogram, the one actually used in July 2020

Current-affairs 'first / through which place' recall — tie the milestone (first Kolkata-Agartala transit container ship) to the Bangladeshi seaport (Chattogram) and the enabling pact (ACMP).

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Agreement on the Use of Chattogram and Mongla Ports (ACMP) for transit of Indian cargo is signed between India and which country?

  • (a)Myanmar
  • (b)Bangladesh
  • (c)Nepal
  • (d)Bhutan

  Answer(b) Bangladesh — its two seaports give India cheaper access to its North-Eastern states.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The narrow strip of land connecting India's North-Eastern states to the rest of the country, often called the 'Chicken's Neck', is the

  • (a)Siliguri Corridor
  • (b)Tin Bigha Corridor
  • (c)Dooars Gap
  • (d)Sikkim Corridor

  Answer(a) Siliguri Corridor — the narrow West Bengal corridor linking the North-East to mainland India.