Petrapole parking woes choke border trade with Bangladesh

Two-hour parking charges at  the world’s most expensive parking bay, in New York, is  $32.97, according to Global Parking Index Study, 2017, by Parkopedia, a global provider of these services. It takes double that amount to wait to  cross a seven km stretch from Bongaon village in West Bengal to Petrapole along the Bangladesh border.  

Between 2014-15 and 2016-17, the value of Indian exports to Bangladesh through the Petrapole checkpost increased 22 per cent to about Rs 157 billion. Much of the increase is attributed to the Indian government’s push for trade with Bangladesh and the modern integrated check post (ICP)