Early next month, Kolkata will play host to a crucial Transport Secretary-level round meeting where India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan will participate. The objective: to ensure better and quicker cross border road communication in the South Asia region. Reports in the Bangladesh media suggest that Delhi has taken the initiative, as the Indian High Commissioner In Dhaka Mr, Pankaj Saran announced the venue.

This follows decisions reached at the 18th SAARC summit held at Kathmandu last year. Improved regional connectivity was the theme, with special emphasis on improving important roads and highways to enable the better movement of heavy duty goods-laden trucks. Given the current pace of economic development in India, Bangladesh and the opening up of the Myanmar economy, experts feel cross border trade and movement of goods would pick up in a major way in the short term

Over the last two decades, the annual GDP growth rate in South Asia as a whole has remained close to 6%, among the highest in the world. Yet intra regional trade has remained fairly low, at 5% of the region's aggregate.

In addition to the poor state of infrastructure in west Bengal and the Northeast, political instability and ethnic strife have also come in the way of economic development.

Seeking to establish a road link with China, Bangladesh has been keen to participate in road/highway building projects through Myanmar. However the ethnic problems affecting majority Buddhists and the minority Rohingya Muslims in the Rakhine area, continues to stall progress .

In West Bengal, the widening of major national North-south highways to the four lane level has not progressed since May 2011 when the Trinamool Congress (TMC) came to power. Led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the state Government refused to clear the encroachment of squatters in pockets along the 560 kilomere long Kolkata-Siliguri highway. Funds allotted by the centre were returned and contractors stopped work on this and other similar projects, receiving no help from the state authorities.
Union Minister for Transport and Shipping Nitin Gadkari has discussed the issue with Ms Banerjee in Kolkata. He has made it clear that the proposed investment of Rs 31,000 crore over the next few years in road infrastructure and the building of the new Sagar port with road linkages, may be jeopardised unless the state Government makes land available. According to reports, the Chief Minister assured the centre of all co-operation.

However, chamber of commerce spokesmen based in Kolkata are keeping their fingers crossed. Despite routine assurances from the state Secretariat, business/industry circles do not regard the TMC government as growth friendly. The abandoning of the Tata Nano car project at Singur was a prime example of the TMC's hostility to industry.

More recently there was further unsettling evidence of the TMC Government's rigid stand on land allotment, as the Kolkata High Court initiated suo motu proceedings to resolve the tangle over the routing of the deadlocked East-West metro project. As counsel for state said a realignment was necessary so that encroaching hawkers were not 'disturbed', judge Nadira Patherya asked what was more important, improving the city's traffic or protecting a few hawkers! A diversion proposed by the state was opposed by the Japanese aid-giving agency on the plea that it would cost over Rs 400 crore more and the state had no intention to provide even part of this!!

Other examples of the state Government's callousness abound. After years of complaints by Bangladesh industry and Government, the widening of the old Jessore road, which links Jessore (Bangladesh) town with Kolkata (India), has been taken up and it is progressing very slowly. The poor condition of the narrow, encroached -upon road is a sad contrast from the wide, well maintained highway on Bangladesh side. Businessmen as well as tourists on both sides have been complaining about conditions in West Bengal, with its poor traffic management and road disorder, resulting in delays and harassment for all.

It has been no different in north Bengal, where participants in the prestigious international Kunming-Kolkata car rally, alleged that West Bengal roads were 'the worst' they had seen! Chinese and Bangladeshi officials even complained to Delhi about the appalling conditions of north Bengal, without the least apparent effect on West Bengal Government!

When pressed on such matters, Ms Banerjee promptly shifts the blame on the centre which she says must take all responsibility for maintaining or widening National highways. As for industrialists seeking plots or linkages, her response is, 'You create your own infrastructure, by buying land directly from the local people, the government will not help in acquisition or price control.'

This approach of the TMC which, transport operators feel may prove a major stumbling block for any proposed road development in the state. According to an Andhra-Bengal Roadways operator, 'In addition to the unhelpful attitude and harassment by the state police at several points, there is also the problem of unruly TMC gangs extorting money from drivers at various points along the highways, without anybody having any control.

Bangladeshi bus operators have complained of having window panes of their vehicles shattered because of violence between warring political groups. However, West Bengal-based operators on the Dhaka-Kolkata run make similar complaints about what happens in Bangladesh!

As Mr. Saran announced the Kolkata meet, Bangladeshi media reports quoted local experts like Professor Imtiaz Ahmed expressing the hope that road traffic would now improve within the region, where millions of people had so much in common culturally. Others hoped there would be an agreement in Kolkata on steps to be taken to improve the cross border movement of goods. Without better connectivity and hassle-free movement of people and goods, the pace of economic development and progress in the region would slow down, it was felt. (IPA Service)