India, B’desh, Nepal transport agreement soon

NEW DELHI: ON JANUARY 1112, INDIA WILL HOST SENIOR TRANSPORT DEPARTMENT OFFICIALS FROM NEPAL AND BANGLADESH IN ORDER FINALISE THE PROTOCOL

After several flipflops, the regional road connectivity plan involving India, Nepal, and Bangladesh is inching closer to fruition.

On January 11-12, India will host a delegation of senior transport department officials from Nepal and Bangladesh in Bengaluru in order to finalise the protocol to make the motor vehicle (MV) pact operational.

“We will hold technical negotiations. Once the protocol is finalised, the countries will decide on a date for signing it,” said a senior government official familiar with the development. Signing it will open the door for seamless movement of passengers and cargo vehicles among the nations.

When it was first conceptualised, the sub-regional road connectivity proposal involved Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, and Nepal (BBIN). The BBIN agreement was signed in Bhutan’s capital, Thimpu, in July 2015.

The initiative pushed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to boost trade, however, could not take off after Bhutan backed out following domestic opposition. After Bhutan’s failure to ratify the BBIN motor vehicle agreement, India decided to operationalise it with the two remaining members.

Last year, Bangladesh put a spanner in the work and backed out of a meeting called by India to finalise the protocol. Bangladesh informed India that it will not sign the pact till Bhutan comes on board, triggering a round of back-channel meetings to bring Bangladesh on board.

Last September, Union road transport and highways minister, Nitin Gadkari, had written to his counterpart in the ministry of external affairs to take “necessary diplomatic interventions” to secure the commitment of Bangladesh at the top political level to implement the important agreement for regional connectivity in a “phased manner”.

Gadkari’s intervention came after Bangladesh wrote to India that it cannot come on board till such time Bhutan makes its “formal stance” on the agreement clear. This is the second time that the Indian government’s sub-regional road connectivity plan has hit a stumbling block. Earlier, Pakistan scuppered the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) motor vehicle agreement by refusing to come on board. India currently only has a bilateral motor vehicle agreement with Nepal and Bangladesh but a multilateral pact would go a long way in boosting trade in the region.