India proposes air connectivity with Islamabad, Male

New Delhi, Aug 31 (UNI) India today proposed to the SAARC member States air connectivity between New Delhi and Male, Maldives, and New Delhi and Islamabad.

The proposals were given at the first Meeting of the SAARC Transport Ministers here.

The Meeting was preceded by the second Meeting of the Technical Committee on Transport held on August 29 and the second meeting of the Inter-Governmental Group on Transport yesterday.

An External Affairs Ministry spokesman said today's meeting deliberated on the report of the SAARC Regional Multimodal Transport Study prepared and funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and recommended extending the SAARC Regional Multimodal Transport Study (SRMTS) to include Afghanistan.

''In keeping with the spirit of the decisions taken at the 14th SAARC Summit, held in New Delhi in April, to move SAARC from the declaratory to the implementation stage, the Ministers had constructive and focused deliberations,'' the spokesman added.

India, Bhutan and Sri Lanka recommended several pilot sub-regional and regional projects for consideration of the SAARC member-states.

India also recomended Birgunj-Kaatihar-Singhabad-Rohanpur- Chittagong connectivity with links to Jogbani, Biratnagar and Agartala, Kathmandu-Birgunj-Kolkata/Haldia and Agartala-Akhaura- Chittagong.

It also recommended air-connectivity between New Delhi and Male and New Delhi and Islamabad.

Bhutan recommended linkage from Phuntsholing to Hashimara and procurement of customs related equipment for faster clearance of cargo, while Sri Lanka suggested rail corridor No 5 between Colombo and Chennai, Ferry Service between Colombo and Cochin, and making Colombo and Tuticorin as two pilot projects.

It was decided at the meeting that the member-states would examine the viability and desirability of these projects for reporting to the Third Meeting of the Inter-Governmental Group on Transport scheduled to be held in Sri Lanka in second week of March 2008.

The Member States examined the preliminary technical inputs provided by the Asian Development Bank and the alternate draft motor Vehicles Agreement proposed by India.

The SAARC Secretariat would prepare the final draft after getting the views of all the member-states.

India also gave a presentation on Postal Connectivity.

UNI