The UN Economic and Social Commission for the Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) proposed to sponsor trans-Asian railway network of about 81,000 kilometers to connect 32 Asia-Pacific countries including Bangladesh, Burma and India.

The aim of the railway link is to facilitate growing trade, commerce and tourism in the region.

Recently, the Law ministry of Bangladesh said there was no legal bar for the government to sign the inter-governmental railway network agreement.

The UNESCAP in 1960, initiated the trans Asian railway network agreement, which would be ready for signing at the UNESCAP ministerial conference on transport to be held in Busan, South Korea, on November 6-11. The cabinet division of Bangladesh government is likely to approve the proposal for signing.

According to the Bangladesh communication ministry sources there are three options proposed by the UNESCAP for trans-Asian railway routes: Route 1: Gede (West Bengal, India)-Darsana-Ishwardi- Jamuna Bridge-Joydevpur-Tongi-Akhaura-Chittagong-Dohazari-Gundum (Myanmar border station). The link would have two sub-routes. Sub-route 1 includes Tongi-Dhaka and Sub-route 2 includes Akhaura-Kulaura to Shahbazpur ( Mahisasan, India).

Route 2: will enter Bangladesh through Singabad (West Bengal, India) – Rohanpur-Rajshahi-Abdulpur-Ishwardi and then follow the rest of the route and sub-routes of Route 1.

Route 3: will enter Bangladesh through Radhikapur (West Bengal, India) – Birol-Dinajpur-Parbatipur-Abdulpur-Ishwardi and then follow the rest of the route and sub-routes of Route 1.

However, Bangladesh was unwilling to sign the Asian Highway project agreement, the deadline for which was over on December 31, last year, another mega and multilateral project under the same UN organisation, as it has strong reservation on the proposed layout of the Asian highway because both the entry and exit points of the route would fall in India.

That time Bangladesh government had preferred route AH41 as Asian Highway route in its territory the entry point of which would be in India and the exit point in Burma. But the route AH41 was shown as a sub-regional route in Asian Highway map.

The present government hands over power to the caretaker administration by the end of this month so some officials of the communications ministry are doubtful whether Bangladesh will be able to sign the agreement.

‘It is not clear whether the caretaker government can sign this agreement even if the present cabinet approves the deal,’ said a top official of the communications ministry.