ADB proposes 3-country bus service

ADB country director Yasushi Negishi said yesterday that the negotiations are expected to be concluded next year as the Indian government has offered Myanmar financial assistance to upgrade bridges along the route linking India’s eastern region with Myanmar and Thailand.
Indian Ambassador Bhagwant Bishnoi has told The Nation that 73 bridges inside Myanmar, built since the Second World War, are being renovated, to ensure the highway is safe to use.
The highway runs from the Indian city of Moreh to Myanmar’s Tamu city and reaches Thailand at Tak’s Mae Sot district.
It will serve as the first major land bridge linking India with mainland Southeast Asia.
The Indian envoy said cargo transport is the first priority for this route.
Negishi yesterday told a Fitch Ratings conference on infrastructure development in Thailand and the Mekong Region that Thailand has already completed road transport links with Cambodia via Aranyaprathet district and Laos via its northeastern provinces.
Previously, there was a 5km missing link between Thailand and Cambodia.
Regarding Laos, there are now several bridges across the Mekong River linking Thailand’s northeastern provinces with the neighbouring country.
According to the ADB, the 10-country Asean grouping needs to invest an estimated US$60 billion (Bt2.1 billion) per year in infrastructure, especially for roads and railways.
At present, Asean countries have a combined average of 10km of roads per 1,000 persons, compared to the OECD countries’ 200km, while the railways deficit is at about 0.25km per 1,000 people for Asean countries compared to the OECD countries’ 5km.
Based on the master plan for Asean connectivity, the first strategy is to complete the Asean highway network while the second strategy is to implement the Singapore-Kunming rail link project.
Regarding the Asean highway network, the planned three-nation highway from India to Myanmar and Thailand will further extend Asean connectivity beyond member countries to India as well as China, with which Myanmar already has a land transport link.
In Vietnam, ADB has provided two $500 million loans to finance the construction of mass transit projects in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
As part of Asean’s southern economic corridor, Vietnam is also connected with China via Kunming and other Chinese cities.
Earlier, ADB signed an agreement with the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) to co-finance a project in Pakistan.
ADB and AIIB are also working together on another transport infrastructure project in Vietnam.
Besides the Asean highway and railway linkages, Asean countries will also work on an integrated inland waterways network and an integrated maritime transport system in the future.
This will position Asean as a regional East Asian transport hub with multimodal systems.