By Xinhua
Dhaka : Japan will provide $1 million, under an Asian Development Bank (ADB) lending programme, to design road and rail networks that will connect Bangladesh to India and Nepal, The Financial Express daily reported Tuesday.
The move is aimed at bringing the three south Asian countries closer in trade and services, the newspaper quoted a statement of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) as saying. Japan is the largest shareholder of the bank.
The South Asia Sub-regional Economic Cooperation (SASEC), a grouping financed by the ADB, is likely to construct the road and the rail projects to be financed by the Manila-based multilateral lender, said the statement.
The funding for designing the communication linkage came after the officials of four SASEC countries – India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan – agreed in 2007 to develop regional transport and trade linkage.
“The project will work toward improving cross-border transport infrastructure and the introduction of modern cross-border management to facilitate trade and the movement of people across the SASEC countries,” said Dong-Soo Pyo, principal financial analyst of ADB’s Southeast Asia department.
Bangladesh and India established road links in the early 1990s. But the linkage is limited only to bus service between Dhaka and Kolkata.
Under the project, a road network will be constructed from Kakarvitta in Nepal, through Panitanki-Fulbari in India to Banglabandha in northern Bangladeshi district of Panchagarh.
The rail project will connect eastern Bangladesh border town of Akhaura to northeastern Indian town of Agartala, it said, adding a modernized trans-border regime at key border points would also be built.
The SASEC was formed in 2001 in order to promote cooperation among the member countries for further development in the sub-region.
It aims at working in six priority sectors – energy and power, environment, information and communication technology (ICT), tourism, trade, investment and private sector cooperation, and transport – where the ADB would provide financial support.