Trans Asian Railways!!!!

Bangladesh gets aboard Trans-Asian Railway 8 out of 28 countries yet to sign deal Bangladesh joined the Trans-Asian Railway (TAR) Friday, a move that would connect the country's rail system to a 81,000km network stretching from Europe to East and South-East Asia. Signing the Intergovernmental Agreement on the Trans-Asian Railway Network makes Bangladesh the 20th signatory to the deal, but Dhaka would still need to sign bilateral agreements to make the TAR network operable. Only eight of the 28 countries under the TAR network are yet to sign the agreement, due to "procedural" and "technical" matters, rather than disagreement about the project, communication ministry officials told The Daily Star. A similar road agreement, the Asian Highway network, is yet to be signed even though the council of advisers had given its approval back in April. The cross-border network also identifies Bangladesh as a transit route between China and India, the world's fastest growing economies. Bangladesh's permanent representative to the UN, Ismat Jahan, signed the agreement at UN headquarters Friday. The 81,000km (50,200 mile) network, first mooted by the UN back in 1960, is also dubbed the "Iron Silk Road" after the ancient trade route. It would link capitals, ports and industrial hubs across the 28 Asian countries all the way to Europe. The UN-backed agreement was signed by 10 countries in Jakarta, Indonesia late last year. The TAR enters Bangladesh from three directions from the Indian state of West Bengal and exits through a single gateway in the east at Gundhum, Myanmar. The routes go through industrial centres in the north and south-west of the country, run through the capital's outskirts of Joydevpur and into Chittagong. The first entry point is at Gede, India and the route goes through Darshana, Iswardi, Jamuna Bridge, Joydevepur, Akhaura, Chittagong, Dohazari, and Gundhum-Myanmar. The second entry point is at Singabad, India and goes through Rajshahi, Iswardi, Jamuna Bridge, Joydevpur, Akhaura, Chittagong, Dohazari, and Gundhum-Myanmar. The third entry point is through Radhikapur, India and goes through Dinajpur, Iswardi, Jamuna Bridge, Joydevpur, Akhaura, Chittagong, Dohazari, and Gundhum-Myanmar. Much of the railway network already exists, although some significant gaps remain as evident in the tardy progress over the past five decades. Even though the TAR planners held forth high expectations after the end of the Cold War, a major obstacle, Asian countries continue to be embroiled in their own conflicts and tensions. Continent-wide technical problems include switching between different-gauge tracks, where to stop, cumbersome immigration procedures, unsafe ferries and inadequate border-crossing facilities for travellers and merchants. A study by the UN's Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), which oversees the TAR, has found four corridors for the overall project. The Northern Corridor will link Europe and the Pacific from Germany to Japan, the Southern Corridor will stretch from Europe to South-East Asia, a South-East Asian Corridor, and a North-South Corridor would link northern Europe with the Persian Gulf. ESCAP chief Kim Hak-Su states on the TAR website that the project is one of the only ways to shift the massive amount of minerals between large Asian markets to fuel their booming economies, especially between Japan, China, South-East Asia, India, and the Middle-East. It would also assist the Asia's 12 landlocked countries, he said. Asia has top 20 container seaports but has fewer than 100 "dry ports", inland container depots. Europe, by contrast, has 200 and the United States 370. http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=11107