Over 200 farmers in Nadia’s Gede have offered to part with their land for the widening of a stretch between India and Bangladesh to facilitate cargo trade with Darshana town, which is on the other side of the border.

The Centre had in July issued a notification asking customs authorities to get in touch with the Bengal government and undertake the widening of the Gede-Darshana road to carry out export-import activities with Bangladesh.

The decision was taken in response to a long pending appeal of the Bangladesh government and traders of both the countries to use the corridor for trading activities.

The Centre has also conceived a plan to build a 278-meter road while widening the existing 850-meter stretch for cargo movement.

A preliminary estimate suggests that around 200 bighas of agricultural land would be required to widen the existing stretch and build the new road. Learning about the Centre’s notification, around 200 farmers in the area offered their plots to the Bengal government so that the land acquisition process could be expedited.

Last month, the farmers had submitted letters declaring that they were ready to offer land to the Nadia district administration.

The letters were then forwarded to the commissioner of the Presidency division for consideration.

However, in the absence of any official communication by the Centre to the Bengal government, work on the corridor is yet to start and that has created resentment among local residents and farmers.

“It is surprising that while the Centre has proactively upgraded its infrastructure to use Gede as a port and proposed to develop roads for cargo movement, it has not communicated with the state government so far. But farmers here are eager to see that their area is developed and have offered their land,” said Dinabandhu Mahaldar, the secretary of the Gede Land Port Society, an organisation of money exchangers and traders at the border town.

“We have obtained consent letters from willing landowners and submitted the same to the district administration,” Mahaldar said. Far mers like Abhoy Biswas and Bijoy Ghosh of Gede claimed that they had decided to offer their land for local development.

“Our next generation is not interested in agriculture. So, if a land port comes up here, it will change our area and create job opportunities,” said Ghosh, who owns a few bighas of multi-crop land.

Officials of the Nadia administration said in the absence of any communication from the Centre they could do little to take the project forward. Additional district magistrate (land and land revenue), Nadia, R.P. Meena, said:

“We don’t have any official communication as far as the requirement for land acquisition is concerned.”