DHAKA, Dec 29, 2022 (BSS) - State Minister for Shipping Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury today said the first terminal of Payra Port will be opened in April or May next.

He said this to journalists after Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka Pranay Verma paid a courtesy call on him at his office here.

The state minister said after the Covid-19 pandemic, operations of land ports did not begin in full swing and in many areas, the Indian authority is not issuing visa.

"We talked about these issues," he said adding that the Indian envoy assured of taking measures on the issues.

He said the Bangladesh-India border situation remains good as there is no problem there. Some isolated incidents took place but there is no reason to worry as these are not inter-state matters, he said

Khalid said they also talked about launching of an Indian cruise in Bangladesh soon.

He said many land ports including Ramgarh land port in Khagrachhari are awaiting for go into operations.

Operations of Ramgarh land port may begin in January as summary has been sent to the prime minister, he added.

Turning to politics, he said Dhaka dwellers are not thinking about BNP's programme as they are now busy with metro-rail.

"Our goal is to build a Sonar Bangla. We will continue our efforts to achieve the goal," he said.