First instalment: India to dispatch wheat to Afghanistan via Attari-Wagah border today

Officials say about 2,000 MT wheat will be sent in 41 Afghani trucks to the crisis-hit country in the first instalment

Nearly four months after India announced its humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan in the form of 50,000 metric tonnes (MT) of wheat, the first consignment will be flagged off from the Attari-Wagah border on Tuesday.

The shipment will be flagged off around 4pm from the Attari-Wagah border by foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla. (HT File Photo)

Officials said about 2,000 MT wheat will be sent in 41 Afghani trucks to the crisis-hit country. A high-level meeting of officials of Land Port Authority of India (LPAI), Border Security Force (BSF), customs, Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) and Punjab Police was held at the Integrated Check Post (ICP), Attari on Monday. The officials took stock of the arrangements which have been put in place to start the transportation.

The Government of India had in October 2021 announced that it would send 50,000 MT of wheat to Afghanistan. Pakistan’s Cabinet had last November given its approval to India to send the consignment through its territory. But the transportation became a sticking point. Officials aware of the development said Islamabad wanted the wheat to be transported in Pakistani trucks provided by the National Logistics Cell, a trucking operation affiliated with Pakistani Army. New Delhi wanted to send it in Indian trucks. Later on, it was decided by both the countries that the wheat will be loaded in the Afghani trucks at the ICP. The Afghani trucks will take the wheat through Pakistan’s Torkham border to Jalalabad in Afghanistan.

“On Monday, the Food Corporation of India (FCI) started loading wheat in Indian trucks. These trucks will be unloaded at the ICP on Tuesday morning. The wheat will be loaded in 41 Afghani trucks thereafter,” said a senior customs official in Amritsar. He said the shipment will be flagged off around 4pm from the Attari-Wagah border by foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla.

The Indian government has entered into an agreement with an Afghanistan-based logistics company that would be liable to send empty trucks via Torkham border (Peshawar) to Attari. The customs officials will carry out a detailed security check of the Afghani trucks when they enter the ICP.

A senior official of LPAI, which manages the ICP Attari’s affairs, said the Afghan trucks would start collecting wheat from Tuesday morning and the entire exercise would take around a month.

He further said that the Afghan authorities had shared the details of identities of drivers, the kind of trucks, their manufacturing company, capacity, registration number and other documents with the foreign ministry of India.