TAR and the connection trouble
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: February 07, 2014 -
The recent news that policy makers in India had been planning to skip Manipur and Assam out of the principal route of the Trans-Asian Railway (TAR) network promoted by United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) comes at a time when the think tanks in these two states were speculating on all possibilities after the completion of the route connecting the region with South East Asian countries.
Though the news remained purely speculative and conjectural with no official confirmation out as yet, one can imagine the impact such a decision was likely to make at least on the over-enthusiastic hope over the scope and benefits of even India’s Look East Policy.
Here, the magnitude of dismay for some would be bigger as the TAR is being constructed to boost trade and cultural exchanges not only within Asia and between Asia and Europe.
This basically means that 17,500-km long railway line passing through 28 member countries and has been described by UNESCAP may not at all bring the much anticipated advantage if the news turns out to be true.
It is said that according to the new proposal, Dhaka should be connected to Jawahar Nagar in North Tripura, which is south of Mahisasan from where new lines will be laid to proceed towards Sairang in Mizoram from where it would be connected to an existing line at Ka Lay in Myanmar.
One reason cited for possible skipping of Manipur and Assam has been frequent “bandhs and violence” that Manipur and Assam have witnessed over recent times.
However speculative the news may be, there is a need to rethink and reassess the possible impacts of such a decision by the Governments of Manipur and Assam.
If certain initiatives like conducting a survey for connecting Imphal with Tamu is on, how does an alternative route of 257 km from north Tripura's Jawahar Nagar railway station to Kolashib in northern Mizoram and Myanmar's Darlon via Sairang would benefit the people of the state.
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