A PORTAL TO BETTER TRADE

In Petrapole, West Bengal, India's busiest land crossing with Bangladesh, a truck carrying cotton yarn rumbled across the border.

- Arkamoy Datta Majumdar

At the wheel for this sortie across from Petrapole land port was Annapoorni Rajkumar, a woman from Tamil Nadu. What made this special wasn't just the landmark event of a woman driving a heavy goods vehicle across an international border from Bengal for the first time, but also the speed with which she completed her task. In just a few hours, Annapoorni returned after offloading her cargo in Benapole, in Bangladesh-an unheard of turnaround time. The credit goes to the Suvidha portal, a digital vehicle facilitation system introduced by the Bengal government in collaboration with the Land Ports Authorities of India (LPAI), Indian Customs and the Border Security Force. The portal has redefined trade at Bengal's six international check posts (ICPs)Petrapole and Ghojadanga in North 24 Parganas, Mahadipur in Malda, Hili in Dakshin Dinajpur, Changrabandha in Coochbehar and Fulbari in Jalpaiguri. Faster trade has brought financial benefits-the state government recently announced that it has earned Rs 600 crore in revenue since the inception of the project in July 2022.