Optimal Pricing Policy of Kolkata-Agartala Transit Route: Some Methodological Issues

The aim of this paper is to investigate the pricing policy of transhipment route for India to move cargo through Bangladesh from Kolkata port to the capital city of Tripura i.e. Agartala. Initially, Bangladesh was hesitating to allow India to provide transhipment facility for the north eastern region but India reciprocate it in right direction by providing similar facility to Bangladesh to reach the Himalayan landlocked countries like Nepal and Bhutan, thereby, actively participate in moving towards an integrated transport network for this region as a whole. The future opening of Myanmar route further gives some relief to India. Most of the cargo originates from Kolkata (Port) and terminates at Guwahati and distributed to various destinations of north eastern states. We try to investigate the pricing policy of such transhipment route for India in terms of a Bertrand type model with non homogeneous type cargo movement where the unit price of cargo transhipment taken as a proxy for such transhipment route.

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