Trial run for India-Myanmar-Thailand highway likely from December

The trial run for the India-Myanmar-Thailand (IMT) trilateral highway connecting the country with southeast Asia is likely to begin from December, an official said on Sunday.

"We are developing the protocol in advance and the agreement is expected to be signed by last week of March or the first week of April 2016. We hope that the trial run for IMT will commence in early December," union Road Transport and Highways Secretary Vijay Chibber said here.

He said the endeavour was to use the IMT to integrate the SAARC and ASEAN regions.

"We want the huge economic blocks - the SAARC region and the ASEAN region - to get integrated through the IMT agreement.

"It has the blessings of three governments and also the Asian Development Bank (ADB) which is helping us not only putting the software act together but also providing us with the adequate resources for development of improved road infrastructure that would connect these two major blocks," said Chhiber.

The highway from Moreh in Manipur to Mae Sot in Thailand via Myanmar will have three verticals - passenger cars, buses and trucks.

Chibber was in the city to flag off the trial-run of a cargo vehicle under the Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal (BBIN) sub-regional initiative for uninterrupted cargo movement.