India, B'desh should join hands to improve connectivity: Singh

Union minister Gen (Retd) V K Singh on Tuesday said India and Bangladesh should seriously look for joint ventures to improve connectivity in the region.

Both the countries must integrate to ensure joint ventures for improving infrastructural connectivity so that it is mutually beneficial, the Union minister of state for road transport and highways said here.

"Bangladesh is our very close partner and it is the road and railway corridors through our neighbouring country which can augment the connectivity of the North East Region to the rest of the country beyond the chicken neck corridor of Siliguri," he said at the India Bangladesh Stakeholders' Meet.

A few decades back it was then prime minister Atal Bihar Vajpayee who conceived the East-West Corridor which connected the North East to the rest of the country through a four-lane expressway, he said.

Singh said the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, another brainchild of him, linked disparate villages across the length and breadth of the country by black-topped roads.

"This in a way started the integration process with the rest of the country and now during the last five years, our present prime minister in addition to the Act East Policy has given tremendous stress on the development of multi-modal connectivity," he pointed out.

A "long-neglected sector" of Inland Waterways has also been added to HIRA - Highways, Internet ways, Railways and Airway, the minister said.

Assam and the North East are blessed with a plethora of rivers, rivulets and water-bodies and it is much cheaper to transport goods through the waterways mode, he said.

"Our Government under Modiji has realized this and around 15 National Waterways have been declared in Assam itself," he added.

In this regard, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has also chipped in with the Bharatmala Project which seeks to address the logistics requirement with multi-modal connectivity.

"We have already started the Multi-Modal Logistics Park at Jogighopa which shall revolutionize the logistics and multi-modal connectivity between the two countries and over time will benefit even Bangladesh and Bhutan," Singh said.

Jogighopa town is located beside the Brahmaputra river in Bongaigaon district in Assam.

'Ashtalakshmi', as the prime minister refers to the eight NE states, can take India to new heights with improved connectivity via road, rail and waterways, Singh said.

Realising the potential of the North Eastern Region, the government of India has outlined five specific development missions to promote horticulture, tourism and food processing sectors in the region.

Further, the BBIN (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal) Initiative will not only promote trade with Bangladesh and other parts of India, but also will encourage start-ups which are exporting processed food, organic fruits and vegetable, high-end fashion products through borders, Singh said.

"The BBIN Motor Vehicles Agreement is likely to reduce the distance between Kolkata and NER states via Bangladesh, while strengthening IWT (inland water transport) along Brahmaputra and Barak rivers could further boost connectivity between NER, Bangladesh and rest of India", he said.

Assam Government's initiative to reopen the railway links with Bangladesh, for example, Chittagong to Makum, can play an instrumental role, the minister said.

The Border Haats can play an instrumental role in strengthening economic ties between India and Bangladesh in general and Bangladesh and North East in particular, he said.

The Act East Policy places the North East at the centre of the country's emerging relations with the countries of South and South East Asia and Assam has been rightly given the epithet of "Expressway to the ASEAN", said the minister.