In another bid to get Pakistan to allow the transit of Indian goods to Afghanistan, India will use the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Summit to push for a “comprehensive regional transport arrangement.”

With Afghanistan joining the bloc at the SAARC Summit, which New Delhi is hosting on April 3 and 4, India proposes to extend the scope of SAARC multi-modal transport study (SRMTS) to that country as well.

The study by the Asian Development Bank has already identified many intra-regional corridors for increasing connectivity among SAARC nations—including the Dhaka-Lahore road corridor—which India hopes, can now be extended up to Kabul.

The Cabinet Committee on security had already cleared a proposal to overhaul 13 Integrated Check Posts (ICPs) and set up a Land Ports Authority of India to identify points on land and riverine borders as landports, and then plan and implement their development.

First of the four ICPs, expected to be implemented by end of 2007 or early 2008, include the Petrapole in West Bengal that borders Bangladesh and Wagah border with Pakistan, Moreh in Manipur along the Bhutan border and Raxaul on the Nepal border. And the transport network through Nepal and Bhutan will give India vital connectivity to the North-East. With Kabul on the radar now, the corridor will begin in the North-East and end in the Afghan capital, provided India nudges Pakistan to get the transit rights.

India will also root for the “harmonising” and simplifying the rules governing the transit issues in the SAARC countries—such as customs procedures, standardisation, reciprocal recognition tests certification and banking.

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