Petrapole

Petrapole
পেট্রাপোল
city
Petrapole

Location in West Bengal, India

Coordinates: 23°00′N 88°50′E / 23.0°N 88.83°E / 23.0; 88.83Coordinates: 23°00′N 88°50′E / 23.0°N 88.83°E / 23.0; 88.83
Country  India
State West Bengal
District North 24 Parganas
Elevation 6 m (20 ft)
Languages
 • Official Bengali, English
Time zone IST (UTC+5:30)
Website north24parganas.nic.in

Petrapole is the Indian side of Petrapole-Benapole border checkpoint between India and Benapole of Bangladesh near Bongaon in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal. Petrapole border is the only land port in south Bengal. It is also the largest land customs station in Asia.[1]

Location

Petrapole is in the district of North 24 Parganas and is about 95 km from Kolkata on the National Highway 35. The nearest town and passenger rail head is Bongaon.[1]

Significance

This check post accounts for more than half of the $4-billion (nearly double the trade volume with Pakistan) trade with Bangladesh. This is the largest land port of Asia.[2] The landport alone accounts for nearly 60 per cent of the bilateral trade between India and Bangladesh.[3] According to study by RITES, the goods traffic is approximately 400 trucks per day both ways, while the 2006 passenger traffic was about 1,159 people per day (both incoming and outgoing). The total traffic in 2029-30 has been projected as 2,938 trucks per day and the passenger traffic by then will be 3,924 people per day.[4]

Communication

The Petrapole-Benapole rail link was opened in 2001 after being closed for 24 years.[5] There is a proposal to construct a by-pass road to ease congestion on the present road, connecting Benapole to NH 35, bypassing Bangaon.[6]

References

  1. 1 2 Chief secretary visits Petrapole border timesofindia.indiatimes.com. Retrieved 6 May 2013
  2. ↑ Customs wants better rail link thru Petrapole thehindubusinessline.com. Retrieved 6 May 2013
  3. ↑ Integrated check post planned at Petrapole to boost trade with Dhaka thehindubusinessline.com. Retrieved 6 May 2013
  4. ↑ Petrapole infrastructure to be beefed up thehindubusinessline.com. Retrieved 6 May 2013
  5. ↑ Petrapole-Benapole rail link re-opens after 24 years hindu.com. Retrieved 6 May 2013
  6. ↑ Bypass to ease border traffic telegraphindia.com. Retrieved 6 May 2013

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, November 12, 2014. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.