Petrapole and Benapole (Bangladesh side) Land Customs Stations will now be made operational 7 days a week from 1st January, 2014. This move came in the wake of Union Minister of Textiles Dr. K.S. Rao writing to Union Finance Minister Shri P.Chidambaram about the congestion at Bangladesh border. Various exporters had raised this issue with the Textiles Minister in a recent meeting. “The move will ease off the way for trade between the two countries and it will especially benefit the textiles sectors of both the countries,” said Dr. Rao.

The Finance Ministry has taken measures to facilitate the trade at Petrapole including extended working hours for the functioning of Customs at Petrapole and aligning the weekly holiday with Bangladesh so as to provide more working days to the trade. The movement of trucks carrying export cargo is allowed up to the LCS of the importing country for discharge of cargo. Regular meetings are being held between the jurisdictional Commissioners of Customs of India and Bangladesh as well as meetings with trade at the border to address issues of concern to the trade. These steps are expected to ease out the traffic congestion to a large extent.

The delay in movement of export cargo at Petrapole is primarily due to infrastructural inadequacies at LCS, Petrapole emerging out of road conditions, traffic congestion and lack of authorized parking facilities. These issues are being taken up with the district administration. To address these further, the Land Ports Authority of India is building an Integrated Check Post (ICP) incorporating state of the art infrastructural facilities at Petrapole, which is expected to be ready by operation in 2014 which will further reduce congestion and ensure smooth flow of goods being exported from India to Bangladesh.

Border trade facilitation: land customs stations to operate daily with extended hours and aligned holidays easing cargo flow. Land Customs Stations at Petrapole and Benapole will operate seven days a week with extended Customs hours and aligned weekly holidays to facilitate export cargo movement, permitting trucks to reach the importing country's LCS for discharge. Coordination between Commissioners of Customs and trade stakeholders will address congestion causes-road conditions, traffic, and parking-while construction of an Integrated Check Post at Petrapole aims to upgrade infrastructure and streamline cross-border trade.