By Jaideep Sarin
Attari Border (Punjab), Sep 28 (IANS) It has taken 60 years for India and Pakistan to realize that they can trade with each other directly through a road link of just 50 km instead of a circuitous route of hundreds of kilometres.On Oct 1 trucks from both countries will for the first time since August 1947 cross the Radcliffe Line, the international border between the countries, carrying goods.
From India, trucks loaded with fresh tomatoes will be sent to flavour the Pakistani cuisine following the failure of the tomato crop there. Trade of only perishables like fresh vegetables, sugar, livestock and meat is allowed from India. Afghan dry fruits will come from Pakistan.
Direct trade between the two countries is expected to take a new leap with the small step of allowing the trucks to cross the international border. The volume of trade between the two countries will get much larger with this, and traders are upbeat about it.
“The everyday movement of trucks into the other country will boost trade. It will increase volume by four to five times. We are pretty happy about the new arrangement. Initially, we expect 15 to 20 trucks to cross over from each side after customs clearance. This will increase in future. We have permission to trade five to six items,” Amritsar-based exporter Rajdeep Uppal told IANS.
The trade of goods last year was Rs. 6 to 7 billion. This is expected to go up considerably.
Customs officials at the Attari border on the Indian side say that all arrangements have been made to facilitate the movement of trucks into Pakistan — and receiving trucks from there.
The trucks will make the crossing between 7.30 a..m. and 2.30 p.m. every day. The Beating Retreat ceremony, marking the closure of border gates, takes place at sunset.
“The move to have a separate trade gate between the two countries instead of the present ceremonial one has been initiated. Land is being acquired for the new trade gate. Later on goods will be sent through that gate,” a customs official at Attari told IANS.
So far, goods in big volumes used to be sent to Pakistan from India and vice versa through the Kandla-Dubai-Karachi route. The whole process made no business sense with the time, distance and money involved.
Amritsar and Lahore cities in India and Pakistan respectively are just 50 km apart. A straight journey – minus the immigration and customs on both sides – would take less than an hour.
For starters, the trucks being allowed will drive only up to the customs house in each other’s country and not any further. The customs houses are located just one kilometre inside the border.
Customs-cleared trucks with special permits for drivers will go into the other country and unload the goods there. So far, goods used to be off-loaded in respective countries and then carried manually by hundreds of porters on both sides of the border.
Goods also used to be sent through the Samjhauta Express train that links the two countries. In both cases, the volume was not much.
Drivers of the trucks crossing over will wear jackets specifying ‘Driver India’ and ‘Driver Pakistan’. Both governments have agreed that these drivers will be allowed entry in each other’s territory on the basis of special permits and that passports and visas will not be required.
Buses to and from Amritsar to Lahore and Sikh religious shrine Nankana Sahib – the birthplace of first Sikh guru Nanak Dev – are the only Indian and Pakistani vehicles allowed into each other’s territory. Foreign nationals though can drive through the Wagah-Attari joint check post during daytime.
“Indian vegetables are in great demand in Pakistan. Decks are being cleared for the export of cotton bales and import of cement,” said Gunbir Singh, president of the Amritsar chapter of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
Indo-Asian News Service
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