The Hindu Business Line : Rly operators discuss traffic promotion across regions

New Delhi March 21 Railway operators from various countries gathered here on Wednesday to chalk out plan for promoting railway traffic across regions and early construction of "missing rail links" in the Trans Asian Railway network.

The first meeting of the Regional Assembly for Asia, which met under the aegis of the International Union of Railways (UIC) today evinced keen interest in increasing connectivity in the region, the Railway Board Chairman, Mr J.P. Batra, told reporters here.

Participants

Railway operators from countries including China, Russia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Bhutan, Laos, Sri Lanka, Korea, Japan and Kazakhstan are participating in the conference. Queensland Railways is a guest member.

Missing link

Mr Batra, who is also the first non-European to head the UIC, said that India has links with Pakistan and Bangladesh but there was a `breakup' in link between India and Myanmar to a length of 315 km. Out of this missing link, about 100 km on the India side has been sanctioned and discussions were on for the completion of the project, he said adding that the Ministry of External Affairs was going into the issue of how the project could be funded.

"Myanmar has shown considerable interest. I am sure very shortly we will reach an agreement on the funding pattern," he said.

China corridor

Considerable interest was also shown on the China-India international corridor, which would pass through Myanmar before entering India, he said adding yet another area where interest was shown was north-south link connecting Russia and India via Iran.