The Hindu Business Line : Asian Highway to put regional trade in top gear

THE Intergovernmental Agreement signed by the 32 Asian countries including India belonging to the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (ESCAP) in Shanghai, China towards the end of last month for the formal launch of the Asian Highway (AH) road network covering a total length of over 1,40,000 kilometres marks the watershed in the annals of transport development in Asia.

The Commerce Secretary, Mr Dipak Chatterjee, who signed on behalf of India at the ESCAP Conference described the imprimatur to the AH network as a landmark event. The AH is a regional network of major international roads spanning the Asian continent.

The project had been in the making for close to four and a half decades when it was conceptualised way back in 1959 by the ESCAP to promote regional cooperation and trade.

Since its inception, ESCAP recognised that building such an international highway network would be a mammoth and cost-guzzling exercise, it was rightly proposed that the basic thrust of the AH project would be to draw a framework for the concerted development and upgrading of existing regional highways.

To put it plainly, the AH would make the maximum use of existing roads, avoiding the construction of new highways except in cases where `missing links' obviated the continuity of the network.

From the beginning five criteria governed the selection of routes covering capital-to-capital links, connections to main industrial and agricultural centres, connections to major sea and river ports, connections to major container terminals and depots and connections to major tourist attractions.

Based on these criteria, the process of formulating the network was revitalised in 1992. Under the framework of the Asian Land Transport Infrastructure Development project and with financial backing from the Government of Japan, ESCAP undertook a raft of studies encompassing different sub-regions: Southeast and South Asia in 1995; Central Asia and the Caucasus in 1996 and North East Asia in 2002.

As the pieces of the AH network fall in places, more and more countries evinced interest in the project and by November, 2003 it had 32 member countries. Drawing on the experience of other regions of the world operating such a massive road network, in particular the European Agreement on Main International Traffic Arteries (AGR) of 1975, ESCAP devised a draft intergovernmental agreement.

This is also the first of its kind to be developed under the umbrella of ESCAP, after the creation of the Asian Development Bank in 1966. Hence, it was placed for an official signing ceremony during the recent sixtieth session of the ESCAP Conference in Shanghai last month.

The Agreement would be deposited with the Secretary-General of the United Nations and it would come into force 90 days after eight States have definitely signed or ratified the Agreement.

The main onus of the contracting parties to the Agreement is first to adopt the AH Network as a coordinated plan for the development of highway routes of international importance. Through this agreement, national roads in contracting parties would take on a new identity of regional importance.

The numbering system reflects the nature of the route: single-digit routes from 1 to 9 are assigned to AH routes which substantially cross more than one sub-regions while sets of 2- and 3-digit route numbers are assigned to indicate routes within sub-regions. Each sub-region will be easily identifiable by its numbering system.

For instance in South Asia, AH-43 depicts Agra-Gwalior-Nagpur-Hyderabad-Bangalore-Krishnagiri-Madurai-Dhaunshkodi-ferry-Tallaimannar-Anuradhapura-Dambulla- Kurunegala (-Kandy)-Colombo-Galle-Matara.

Second, the contracting parties resolve to bring the network in conformity with the AH classification and design standards. This implies that the parties agree to strive to meet the set of standards postulated in the Agreement in the further development of the AH.

With India currently implementing the National Highway Development Programme, adherence to strict quality standards in construction is but appropriate.

Third, participating members consent to place AH signs along the designated routes within five years from the date of entry into force to facilitate smooth navigation along the AH network.

The Agreement also provides a framework for the negotiations of changes in the route alignment within countries, ensuring that the AH network cannot be unilaterally changed.

Trade policy analysts including experts from Research and Information System here contend that at a time when AH is becoming "a reality", a common road network for South Asia connecting Colombo to Islamabad to Delhi to Dhaka to Kathmandu to Thimpu is also not far off to realise.

With India emerging as a major player in South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and a dialogue partner in ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations), AH would go a long way to foster regional transportation and transit system offering efficient transportation and minimal transaction cost to trade and industry over the long-run, besides imparting the much-needed shot in the arm to the intra-Asian trade, they say.

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