Pakistan may have managed to stall the SAARC connectivity project, but India plans to go ahead with its connectivity plans with neighbouring countries. The Government is contemplating introducing a regular passenger bus services to Dhaka from Guwahati via Shillong. A joint technical survey-cum-trial run will be held on December 10-11 from Guwahati to Dhaka.
This bus route will be in addition to two passenger bus services to Dhaka already operating from Kolkata and Agartala.
This new bus route comes shortly after the Government of India started a bus service between Delhi to Kathmandu in November while plans are also on to start a bus service between Imphal and Mandalay (Myanmar).
According to Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, the trial run and route survey will be carried out jointly by delegations from India and Bangladesh by way of a dry run of the service to assess route conditions and other technical parameters. The trial run will conclude at Dhaka on December 12, 2014 and the delegations are expected to submit its report on the details and feasibility of starting of the regular bus services.
Negotiations with Bangladesh for starting the bus services from Guwahati and Shillong have been underway for past several months. The proposed bus service covering approximately 500 kms starting from Guwahati will be taking the Shillong-Dawki (Meghalaya)/Tamabil (Bangladesh)-Sylhet-Dhaka route.
The Indian delegation for the trial run will be led by W Blah, Superintending Engineer of Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and have representatives from the Ministries of Finance, Home Affairs and External Affairs apart from the State Governments of Assam and Meghalaya. The Bangladesh delegation consisting of seven senior officials for the trial run will reach Guwahati on December 9 and proceed to Dhaka by bus along with the Indian delegation.
Pakistan, during the SAARC Summit in Kathmandu in November, had stalled the signing of SAARC Connectivity Agreements, including the motor vehicle pact, saying it was yet to complete its internal process, even as other countries, including India and Sri lanka strongly pitching for strengthening the people-to-people contact and movement of goods in the region.
While Pakistan’s blocking did disappoint India since it had initiated these proposals, Indian officials said that India has already initiated bilateral connectivity pacts with countries within SAARC.