India today asked Islamabad to overcome its reservations on a proposed motor vehicles deal among South Asian Association For Regional Cooperation members and a demonstration container train from Bangladesh to Pakistan to improve connectivity in the region.
India today asked Islamabad to overcome its reservations on a proposed motor vehicles deal among South Asian Association For Regional Cooperation (SAARC) members and a demonstration container train from Bangladesh to Pakistan to improve connectivity in the region.
Addressing a seminar on challenges and prospects of intra-regional connectivity organised by the SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Indian high commissioner in Islamabad Sharat Sabharwal expressed the hope that Pakistan would overcome its reservations on the motor vehicles pact and the container train proposal "sooner rather than later, so that these ideas could move forward".
"When the issue of India's connectivity westward through the Pakistani territory comes up, a question is raised by some whether India would be willing to provide similar connectivity to Pakistan through its territory to other SAARC countries," he said.
India had participated actively and "with a positive attitude" in deliberations among SAARC member states on developing intra-regional connectivity, including through Indian territory, Sabharwal said.
He said India had proposed the motor vehicles agreement and a concept paper for running the container train from Bangladesh to Pakistan via India and Nepal and eventually to Afghanistan.
India plans to develop 13 integrated check posts along its border with different SAARC countries at a cost of Rs6.35 billion to facilitate regional connectivity, the envoy said.
Four of these check posts will be along the border with Nepal, seven along the border with Bangladesh, and one each along the frontiers with Bhutan and Pakistan, he said.
Work on the check post at Attari along the border with Pakistan began in February and it will be completed next year at a cost of Rs1.5 billion.
The post will have modern facilities for the smooth flow of goods and passenger traffic, Sabharwal said.
The envoy also reiterated Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's vision of inclusive growth in South Asia so that the region is better connected, better educated, better fed and better empowered.
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