The Cabinet on Wednesday approved the signing of a motor vehicles pact between India and three other SAARC nations — Bhutan, Bangladesh and Nepal on June 15. Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari will visit Bhutan to sign the pact with his counterparts, which will enable seamless transit of passenger and cargo vehicles among these nations.
“The Cabinet has approved the signing of the Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal (BBIN) Motor Vehicle Agreement for the Regulation of Passenger, Personal and Cargo Vehicular Traffic amongst BBIN. The agreement will be signed on June 15 at the BBIN Transport Ministers’ meeting in Thimpu, Bhutan,” an official statement said after the meeting. Gadkari will reach Bhutan on June 14.
Signing of the BBIN pact will promote safe, economically-efficient and environmentally-sound road transport in the sub-region and will help each country in creating an institutional mechanism for regional integration, said Gadkari, detailing the Cabinet’s decision.
“The BBIN countries will benefit from mutual cross-border movement of passengers and goods for overall economic development of the region. The people of the four countries will benefit through the seamless movement of goods and passenger across borders,” said the Ministry in a statement. Each country will bear its own costs arising from implementation of this agreement, the statement added.
A meeting of Secretaries of Transport of the BBIN countries was organised by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways in February 2015 to discuss and finalise the draft of the BBIN pact, which is similar to the SAARC Motor Vehicle Agreement (MVA) draft with minor changes.
Earlier, the Cabinet had approved a proposal to sign the MVA during the SAARC Summit in Kathmandu in November 2014. “Unfortunately, it could not be signed due to reservations from
Pakistan. The SAARC declaration at the Kathmandu Summit in November 2014 also encouraged member countries to initiate regional and sub-regional measures to enhance connectivity. Accordingly, it was considered appropriate that a sub-regional BBIN pact may be pursued,” the statement added.