Vehicles will start plying on BBIN routes from January: Quader

Passenger and cargo vehicles will start operating on the proposed land routes between Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal from January next year, Road Transport Minister Obaidul Quader has said.

“The routes will become operational in January after completion of road survey,” he told reporters at a media briefing on the BBIN in Dhaka on Thursday.

There would be trial run of vehicles on the routes next month, he added.

Bangladesh, Bhutan and India have already given final approval to the initiative.

Quader hoped Nepal would soon give the final nod.

The neighbours will be allowed to charge ‘transit fee’ under the agreement.

“We’ll fix the rate for Bangladesh soon,” the minister added.

Transport ministers of the four nations inked the agreement on June 15 to allow the passage of passenger and cargo vehicles in the four SAARC member countries.

Minister Quader said a ‘Friendship Motor Rally’ would start from India’s Odisha on Nov 14.

It will go through Jharkhand’s Ranchi, Nepal’s Kathmandu, Biratnagar, Bhutan’s Phuentsholing, Thimphu, Bumthang, Mongar, Assam’s Guwahati, Shilchar, Tripura’s Agartala.

The rally will enter Bangladesh on Nov 28 through either Akhurha or Feni’s Bilonia border.

It will arrive in Dhaka via Chittagong. A seminar will be organised in Dhaka on Nov 29.

The rally would end after going to Kolkata from Dhaka through Benapole the next day.

Other SAARC countries can also subsequently join the agreement on consensus.