Bangladesh may sign up for trans-Asian railway link

The council of advisers in Bangladesh is expected to approve the signing of the UN-sponsored Trans-Asian Railway Network agreement on Saturday, which aims at boosting trade and tourism in the Asia-Pacific region.

Dhaka, May 4 : The council of advisers in Bangladesh is expected to approve the signing of the UN-sponsored Trans-Asian Railway Network agreement on Saturday, which aims at boosting trade and tourism in the Asia-Pacific region.

The proposal for the signing the inter-governmental agreement on the 81,000km railway network, also dubbed as the Iron Silk Road, connecting 32 countries will be tabled before the council on Saturday, said cabinet division sources.

If the council approves the proposal, Dhaka can sign the agreement by 2008 at the United Nations New York headquarters, the official added.

Bangladesh had earlier missed the opportunity of signing the agreement in November 2006 as the communications ministry did not send the proposal to the cabinet of the immediate-past government for approval.

Initiated by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific in 1960, the inter-governmental agreement was open for signing at the UNESCAP ministerial conference on transport in Busan, South Korea on November 10 last year. Eighteen countries signed the agreement at the Busan conference.

According to the Communications Ministry, any of the three route options proposed by the UNESCAP for Bangladesh to join the railway network was positively in the interest of the country. he proposed route 1 is Gede, West Bengal, India-Darsana-Ishwardi-Jamuna Bridge-Joydevpur-Tongi-Akhaura-Chittagong- Dohazari-Gundum in Myanmar. The link will have two sub-routes -Tongi-Dhaka and Akhaura-Kulaura-Shahbazpur, Mahisasan, India.

Route 2 runs from Singabad, West Bengal, India to Rohanpur-Rajshahi-Abdulpur to Ishwardi and then follows the rest of the route 1 and its sub-routes.

Route 3 will enter Bangladesh through Radhikapur, West Bengal, India and run from Birol-Dinajpur-Parbatipur-Abdulpur to Ishwardi and then follow the rest of the route 1 and its sub-routes.

The Bangladesh Railway is also of the opinion that all the proposed routes would serve Bangladesh's interest and the country can choose any of the three.

Bangladesh earlier refused to ratify another UN-sponsored Asian Highway project agreement, the deadline for which expired on December 31, 2005, because of its 'reservations' about the proposed Route AH1 as both its entry and exit points were in India, which the BNP-led alliance government feared would eventually turn out to be a 'transit route for India'.

The government had preferred Route AH41, the entry point of which would have been in India and the exit point in Myanmar. But Route AH41 was shown as a sub-regional one in the Asian Highway map.

ANI