New land ports planned in Bengal

The Land Ports Authority of India (LPAI) has announced a strategic plan to develop seven to eight new international land ports in West Bengal to aggressively scale up cross-border cargo and passenger movement with Bangladesh and Nepal. Currently, West Bengal only operates one integrated land port at Petrapole, leaving a massive volume of border commerce dependent on outdated land customs stations. Under this new plan, key frontier locations including Panitanki on the Indo-Nepal border, alongside Ghojadanga, Hili and Birpara on the Indo-Bangladesh border, will be transformed into modern hubs averaging 50 acres each. These integrated facilities will bring cargo warehouses, cold storage, automated Customs and Border Security Force checkpoints under a single roof to unlock an estimated Rs 4,44,167 crore in untapped border trade. 

The initiative falls under a larger national blueprint to build 74 additional land ports, transitioning traditional border crossings into highly efficient, multimodal economic corridors to bolster regional connectivity and secure critical chokepoints like the Siliguri Corridor, according to a report. 

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