SAARC Transport Ministers Meeting Recommends Regional Projects

31 August 2007: New Delhi

The Union Minister of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways, Thiru T. R. Baalu, has been elected the Chairperson of the first meeting of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Transport Ministers in New Delhi today. The countries which participated in the conference are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. This Meeting was preceded by the 2nd Meeting of the Technical Committee on Transport (August 29, 2007) and 2nd Meeting of the Intergovernmental Group on Transport (August 30, 2007).

The Meeting deliberated on the Report of the SAARC Regional Multimodal Transport Study prepared and funded by Asian Development Bank (ADB) and recommended extending the SAARC Regional Multimodal Transport Study (SRMTS) to include Afghanistan.

After being elected Chairperson of the Meeting, Thiru Baalu welcomed the SAARC Transport Ministers and other delegates and said that he looks forward to closely working to develop and ensure a successful outcome to the deliberations of the meeting. Thiru Baalu said that this meeting is important given the directive of the Heads of Governments at the 14th SAARC Summit held in April in New Delhi to move SAARC from the declaratory to the implementation stage.

The Minister said that it is inevitable that connectivity was selected as the core theme for the 14th SAARC Summit as against the current forces of market liberalisation and technical advances in communication, more and more people are getting connected to each other. “Why should we as Members of South-Asia be left behind”, he emphasized.

Thiru Baalu said that there should be a focussed list of road, rail, water and aviation corridors which is easily implementable. The Minister said that, we should strengthen the air connectivity with the SAARC Capitals not yet directly linked to accelerate the connectivity. Some thoughts on ADB’s input for operationalising the fiscal infrastructure through some sort of Agreement could also be looked forward to, Thiru Baalu added.

The following pilot sub-regional and regional projects were recommended by Bhutan, India and Sri Lanka for consideration of the SAARC Member States:

Bhutan:

i. Linkage from Phuntsholing to Hashimara
ii. Procurement of customs related equipment for faster clearance of cargo.

India:

i. Birgunj-Kaatihar-Singhabad-Rohanpur-Chittagong with links to Jogbani, Biratnagar and Agartala
ii. Kathmandu-Birgunj-Kolkata/Haldia
iii. Agartala-Akhaura-Chittagong
iv. Air-connectivities: Malé-New Delhi and Islamabad-New Delhi

Sri Lanka:

i. Rail Corridor No. 5 between Colombo and Chennai
ii. Ferry Service between Colombo and Cochin
iii. Colombo and Tuticorin as two pilot projects

Member States would be examining the viability/desirability of these projects for reporting to the Third Meeting of the Inter-Governmental Group on Transport scheduled to be held in Sri Lanka in second week of March 2008.

The Member States examined the preliminary technical inputs provided by the Asian Development Bank and the alternate draft motor Vehicles Agreement proposed by India. The SAARC Secretariat would prepare the final draft after consolidating all Member States views on it.

Apart from Thiru T.R. Baalu and Mr. Chenkyab Dorji, the Hon’ble Secretary General (SAARC), the other Ministers who attended the meeting are Mr. Lyonpo Loki Dorji, Hon’ble Minister of Information and Communications, Bhutan, Mr. Nematullah Ehsan Javid, Hon’ble Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation, Afghanistan, Mr. Mohamed Saeed, Hon’ble Minister of Transport and Communications, Maldives, Mr. Dallas Alahapperuma, Hon’ble Minister of Transport, Sri Lanka, Mr. Mohammad Mahabuburrahman, Hon’ble Advisor for Communications, Bangladesh and Mr. Ramesh Lekhak, Hon’ble Minister for Labour and Transport Management, Nepal.

Source: Press Information Bureau of India