Despite U.S. opposition, Iran to be transport hub for North-South Corridor
source:the Hindu
A three-day meeting of experts from 16 countries discussed ways to
smoothen the way for the International North South Transport Corridor (INSTC)
and at least six supplementary routes despite the U.S. pushing its Silk Road
proposal in which its bete noire Iran has been excluded.
In stark contrast, Iran plays a crucial role in the multi-modal
North-South Corridor as its port Bandar Abbas will be the hub of all activity.
Experts proposed the setting up of two four-nation groups to resolve many of the
ssues. Iran along with Russia and India (all three initiators of the project)
will be in both groups.
The meeting on the INSTC which ended here on Wednesday proposed a
joint venture between Iran, India, Russia and Azerbaijan to find solutions to
aspects such as infrastructure and funding. It also suggested a core group on
customs — India, Russia, Iran and Turkey — consisting of experts from these
countries, based in Delhi to sort out issues.
When India pointed to the missing link of 500 km in Iran that
could impede the project, Tehran gave some good news. It said 372 km of the
Quazvin-Rasht-Astra was complete and the contractor identified 163 km of the
Rasht-Astra route. But there were technical problems in the last leg leading up
to Azerbaijan. The experts suggested that a fund may be created to help Iran
complete the route as quickly as possible.
The meeting was aimed at achieving progress on four fronts —
identifying the residual construction on the main North-South Corridor and the
time frame for completion of the work, identification of bottlenecks and action
plan for the resolution, action plan along with the time frame for harmonisation
of customs and insurance documents and procedures and identification of
complementary routes and their status and actionable points for
member-countries.
The experts indicated the need for funds to the tune of $700
million (over Rs. 4,000 crores) to ensure that portions of the proposed
East-West corridor connecting the Persian Gulf to Central Asia and China could
be linked to the North-South corridor.
No comments:
Post a Comment