Rail to link Dhaka, Delhi, Lahore?

[Gabbar]

Rail to link Dhaka, Delhi, Lahore?​

Sixty-two years after Partition, India has initiated a novel scheme to stitch together closer ties with Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The Indian Railways has proposed a South Asian regional train service linking Dhaka, New Delhi and Lahore.

The proposal was first put forward at a SAARC transport ministers’ conference in Sri Lanka earlier this month.

“It flows out of India’s commitment to the programme sponsored by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific for the construction of a Trans-Asian Rail (TAR) network,” Railway Board member Shri Prakash told HT.

The larger programme aims to build an 81,000-km network connecting Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Mongolia, Pakistan, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand and the Russian Federation.
Enthusiastically backing India’s proposal, US state department spokesman Ian Kelly said in Washington on Friday, “The US supports ideas such as this to break down barriers to trade and interaction among the Pakistan and Indian peoples.”
But the proposal has a long way to go before implementation. After being “technically approved” by Pakistan’s railway ministry, the proposal is being studied by its commerce and foreign affairs ministries, reports from Islamabad indicate. A senior official at the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi confirmed the proposal was being discussed, but refused further details.

Bangladesh, however, has raised serious concerns. “Bangladesh has no intention of having trade links with Pakistan. Such a proposal was never discussed at bilateral meetings with India,” an official of the Bangladesh High Commission said.

Experts say the project is viable as all three countries use the same broad gauge tracks and operating equipment.

 

[Captain03]

don't think it'll work
it'll be nothing but blood and war

 

[Gabbar]

don't think it'll work
it'll be nothing but blood and war

??? Care to elaborate how you got to this conclution?

 

[r3alist]

there is a big trust deficit with india, am not overly enthusiastic about this.

 

[Imran Khan]

no thanks if BD is not interested we are not interested 2 times to hell SAARC rail we are connected with EU now.and no need more illegal Bangladeshi in Pakistan for illegal migration to golf and EU.

 

[r3alist]

no thanks if BD is not interested we are not interested 2 times to hell SAARC rail we are connected with EU now.and no need more illegal Bangladeshi in Pakistan for illegal migration to golf and EU.

illegal indians aswell.

 

[Imran Khan]

no i think Indians can't afford to enter in Pakistan illegal easily just because they know if they catched they will be in hell.

 

[Omar1984]

There has been a long discussion on this:

http://www.defence.pk/forums/econom...eks-pak-passageway-freight-train-service.html

I dont know why Indian media keeps dreaming about a rail link to Europe through Pakistan.

Pakistan has continuously rejected India's request for a transit route to Afghanistan via Pakistan, there is no way that Pakistan will agree to let india in a transit route to Europe via Pakistan because that railway will ultimately be connected to all Central Asian countries including Afghanistan.

Also Bangladesh sent a similar request as india.

I think Pakistan should deal more with the countries west to Pakistan and China and deal less with the countries of the subcontinent because we all understand the games they are playing.

We are just going to go in circles if we are friends with India like in 2004-2008 then something like mumbai incident or samjhota happens and then we are enemies again. The fact is we can never be friends with India unless Kashmir dispute is resolved.

 

[Captain03]

??? Care to elaborate how you got to this conclution?

if something goes wrong on the trade the countries will blame each other in which one conflict will probably result in war
all these countries don't have a good relationship to begin with anyway

 

[Gabbar]

if something goes wrong on the trade the countries will blame each other in which one conflict will probably result in war
all these countries don't have a good relationship to begin with anyway

It's just a train link. We are already doing buisness with each other. I will try to find some numbers on it but I thing we already engaged in millions of dollars worth trade with each other. I have never heard of a war that was based on trade differences.

 

[Captain03]

It's just a train link. We are already doing buisness with each other. I will try to find some numbers on it but I thing we already engaged in millions of dollars worth trade with each other. I have never heard of a war that was based on trade differences.

it's gonna happen mistrust between the countries will eventually lead to it
and people always tend to become more serious when it comes to money
kya samjey

 

[SandsofTime]

We should keep the lucrative trade route options as bargaining chips for settlement of outstanding disputes. While it may not mean so much in monetary terms for India, it nevertheless is a good incentive to normalize relations.

 

[IceCold]

What a waste of both time and resources. Indians are stongly backing this up because they have a bigger fish to fry which they keep on dreaming giving india an access through Pakistan.
Seriously Indians wakeup this isnt going to happen any time soon.

 

[EjazR]

We should keep the lucrative trade route options as bargaining chips for settlement of outstanding disputes. While it may not mean so much in monetary terms for India, it nevertheless is a good incentive to normalize relations.

Well you do realise that despite border issues between India and China. They have bilateral trade worth US $ 60B+?

So why should China get economic benefit despite border disputes, and being seen as a bigger danger to India than Pakistan, while ont he other hand Pakistan is deprived of the same? Just a thought.

 

[Musalman]

India do not trust Pakistan thats why it moved away from IPI. How can they expect us to trust them for Railway. What if Pakistani train is burnt like the one they did in Panipat????? First resolve issue then trade and links