Last August, several senior officials of the Land Ports Authority of India crossed over to Bhutan and met officials of the Royal Government at Ga Me Ga, a luxury hotel in the border town of Phuntsholing.After brainstorming on how to smoothen the flow of goods, 10 members from the Bhutanese team was driven to the Indian side of the border — to Bolan Chopati near Jaigaon in Alipurduar district of West Bengal.They had come for a site visit, to see the place where the Land Ports Authority wanted to build a state-of-the-art Integrated Check Post (ICP). There was not much to show except some 50 acres, parts of the site still farmland, where the project would come up.The proposed post, with a warehouse, inspection shed and a parking lot, is to be set up near a new bypass built with a soft loan from the Asian Development Bank . Once the land port project is ready, trucks to and from Bhutan would be able to use the new road, avoiding the congested roads of Jaigaon town. Thousands of cargo trucks have to currently pass through a small customs post in Jaigaon every year. In 2016-17, as many as 37,680 trucks passed through this post.But not much has changed on the ground for the ICP project since that August 27 site visit.Land Ports Authority, under the Ministry of Home Affairs, first presented the proposal for the ICP to the West Bengal government three years ago.But officials connected to the project claim the state government is “intentionally” going slow in acquiring the required land even though 12 reminders have been sent since 2016.One of the reminders include a letter dated August 29, 2017, by Rajiv Gauba, then an officer on special duty and currently India’s home secretary. The letter was addressed to chief secretary Malay Kumar De, who is still West Bengal’s top bureaucrat.ET Magazine reviewed seven of those letters written by home ministry and Land Ports Authority officials to West Bengal government and they emphasise just one point — expeditious handing over of land identified for the ICP in Bolan Chopati besides clearing land for four other proposed ICPs — at Ghojadanga, Changrabandha and Fulbari on the Bangladesh border and at Panitanki on the Nepal border.“The project has been on a standstill because West Bengal government has not done much to acquire the land,” Land Ports Authority chairman Anil Bamba told ET Magazine.He says the ICP when ready will speed up the movement of cargo trucks since it will reduce customs clearance time from 2-5 days per truck to just 12 hours. To find out the reason for the delay, this writer contacted the office of the chief secretary but was told to speak with Atri Bhattacharya, principal secretaryhome.But repeated phone calls and an email sent to Bhattacharya did not elicit any response.However, on condition of anonymity, a West Bengal officer in the know said that the current political establishment was cagey about acquiring land, particularly farmland. “The state government is ready to hand over 12 acres of land adjacent to the present facility,” the official says. But he also says the 44 acres near the proposed site can be acquired if there is a political nod from Kolkata It is well known that the BJP-led central government and the Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal have been at the loggerheads on a number of fronts. The state has even boycotted several central schemes including the health insurance scheme, Ayushman Bharat.But the ongoing slugfest between New Delhi and Kolkata may have a fallout on India’s ties with Bhutan, since the landlocked Himalayan kingdom has been demanding an expansion of the Jaigaon facility since 2011.Also, Bhutan’s side of the proposed ICP, at a place called Alay, is almost ready. It is now mounting pressure on India to expedite the project as its newly built dry port, the first in the country, is coming up at the nearby industrial town of Pasakha.Even though there exists in Assam another land port to Bhutan, the Jaigaon— Phuntsholing border is strategic for the trade. Nearly 80% of Bhutan’s imports, including medicines, vehicles, vegetables and petroleum products, pass through this border.It is also the only route for Bhutan’s trade with other countries, valued at Rs 282 crore in 2016-17.Maybe, it is time to bury political differences on issues of geo-strategic nature.After all, India must not upset a friendly neighbour, who is also on China’s radar.