08.3.2007

A Train from India to Bulgaria

India (News.bg) -- On Tuesday, the Indian cabinet will decide on whether to sign the Inter-Governmental Agreement that envisages a continuous 80,900-km rail link - the Trans Asian Railway - through three corridors, the Hindustan Times reports.

Although the principal idea is to encourage trade between South-east Asia, Central Asia and Europe, tourism too is likely to benefit.

India will be part of the Southern Corridor that starts in Kunming in China and covers 11,460 km before terminating in Kapikule in Bulgaria. The other two corridors link the Russian Federation to the Korean Peninsula (the Northern
Corridor) and the Chinese border through Lao to Malaysia (the Indochina and Asian Sub-region Corridor).
The rail link will enter India at Tamu bordering Myanmar, pass through Bangladesh at Mahisasan and again enter India at Gede. It will exit India through Attari.

The agreement was adopted at the 62nd session of United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) in 2006. India, Pakistan and Bangladesh were among the 10 countries which watched 18 others sign the agreement. The agreement has to be signed before next year.

The Trans Asian Railway was conceived in the 1960s to provide a continuous 14,000-km rail link between Singapore and Istanbul, with possible onward connections to Europe and Africa. But the idea never went beyond the drawing board. The concept was revived and expanded to over 80,000 km in the early 1990s with the UNESCAP playing the key role.