Trade through the Benapole-Petrapole closed for two days on Monday (May 8-9) in light of Indian Home Minister Amit Shah's scheduled visit to Petrapole, the Indian side of the land port facility, on Tuesday.
Shah is scheduled to attend the inauguration of a number of programmes and installations, mainly to strengthen security, at the port on the Indian side, according to sources there.
Shashank Shekhar Bhattacharya, president of Petrapole C&F Staff Welfare Association, confirmed the matter quoting the Petrapole Land Port Authority of India.
On the Bangladesh side, Benapole Land Port Director Abdul Jalil said there will be no activity with India through the port today (Monday) and tomorrow (Tuesday) as the Union Home Minister of India will visit the Petrapole port on Tuesday.
Benapole-Petrapole is by far the largest of the nine Integrated Check Posts the two countries share, accounting for $2.5 billion in bilateral trade annually, according to the World Bank. So, the home minister's visit will cost the people of the two countries, given that you need to shut down everything for two days.
However, the movement of passengers will be normal. Besides, the country's ports and customs operations will also continue as normal, Abdul Jalil assured reporters.
