Rangamati (Bangladesh), April 25 (AP): Authorities in a Bangladeshi hill district are importing donkeys from India to carry goods in remote areas without proper roads, an official said today.

The district council in Rangamati, the largest of the three hill districts in southeastern Bangladesh, has imported 20 donkeys from India to start a breeding centre, said Priyanath Barua, an official in the livestock department.

The department plans to sell the offspring at low cost to tribals who live in remote villages scattered over forested hills that are often inaccessible by road.

The first batch of donkeys ? five males and 15 females ?were trucked on Friday to Rangamati, a town 215 km southeast of Dhaka.

Since Friday, hundreds of curious villagers have visited the district?s livestock department, where the donkeys are being kept in a makeshift shed. The department has even received some early applications for the animals, Barua said.

?There is a lot of enthusiasm,? he said.

The Chittagong hill tracts affairs ministry decided to introduce donkeys to the hill region and build a breeding centre ? the only one in Bangladesh. The ministry has allocated 500,000 takas ($7,900) to import the donkeys. It plans to import another 480 donkeys in batches from India or Nepal.

If the Rangamati donkey project is successful, the ministry plans to introduce the animals to the other two hill districts ? Bandarban and Khagrachari.