India Announces Further Plans for Trans-Asia Rail Links

April 29 (EIRNS) - "India is now following a policy of international corridors. In the first step, it is trying to link the railways of India and Myanmar over a distance of 330 km," the Press Trust of India quoted a leading source of the Railway Ministry today. India has already launched dedicated freight corridors to link four cities, and is now joining with neighboring nations to develop global railway corridors. The India-Myanmar line "will also give us a link between India and Southeast Asian states, including China. The exercise will cut traveling to one-fourth the time taken by sea route," the Rail Ministry source said.

The planned eastern international corridor will link the city of Kohima in Nagaland state to Myanmar, and to railway lines in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos in the south, and economically developed southeastern China and Russia on the other, PTI reported.

India is giving technical help to the railroads in Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos, and Bangladesh, to help develop their operating infrastructure and help connect inter-state railways. India is also counseling Pakistan and other nations on rail links to Southwest Asia. Iran is already completing the internal rail line which will connect Iran's national rail system to Pakistan, which is already connected to the Indian rail system. Iran has announced the rail line will be completed sometime in mid-2008.