Dream about Trans-Asia Railways near to come true

A railway version of the famed Silk Road is set to move a step closer to reality at a regional United Nations transport conference being held in Korea (ROK) from Nov 10-11, with an agreement for a trans-continental network linking national systems from Armenia to Vietnam via Pakistan.
Revitalization of the spirit of enterprise that symbolizes the ancient Silk Road is an endeavour of UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP). Taking of the policy decisions for building interlinked highways and railways for 21st century Asia would be finalised during the two-day moot. The decisions made during the Conference could transform remote parts of the region into interconnected hubs of economic activity and social progress that would deal with a range of infrastructure and institutional barriers that blunt the competitive edge of exports and increase the costs of imports. A lot of work would be required to do to develop efficient and truly cost-effective transport linkages.
Some 300 high-ranking officials are meeting ahead of the ministerial meeting scheduled for 10-11 November. More than 50 ministerial-level representatives from 43 of UNESCAP’s 61 members are expected to attend. One of the highlights of the conference is the signing of the Intergovernmental Agreement on the Trans-Asian Railway Network (TAR) on November 10. Once signed, the treaty will be deposited with Secretary-General Kofi Annan in New York. The TAR accord comes on the heels of the Asian Highway Network that came into force last year, also under UNESCAP auspices. UNESCAP experts believe that port efficiency can be enhanced through the integration of rail and shipping to avoid port congestion, a key factor in Asia, which is home to 13 of the world’s top 20 container ports.
TAR is also crucial for landlocked countries whose access to world markets is heavily dependent on efficient links to the region’s main international ports. Twelve of the world’s 30 landlocked countries are in Asia, and 10 are TAR members. TAR members are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Republic of Korea, Russia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam. A Ministerial Declaration on Transport will include a framework for the efficient and effective implementation of a regional action programme. It is designed to set the direction of transport development in the UNESCAP region over the next five years.
A second Ministerial Declaration will focus on improving road safety. UNESCAP estimates that by 2020 approximately 610,000 road deaths, representing two-thirds of the world’s total, will be in the UNESCAP region. Pakistan’s Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid Ahmed would attend the moot and represent the country for signing of this highly important agreement. In the meantime, Pakistan has been making all endeavours to provide linkages through railways to all the four neighbouring countries including, Iran, Afghanistan, China and India.
As far as the link of Pakistan is concerned with Iran and India it has already been operating railway traffic while the efforts are afoot to start railway service on Pakistan-Afghanistan linking up to Spin Boldak and then to Kandhar. The raillink between Pakistan and China is yet to be built as feasibility plan to set up connection between Havelian in Pakistan to Kashgar in China has been accorded to a German firm in collaboration with a Chinese concern. Pakistan links Iran through its bordering town of Taftan while Iran has yet to build rail link on a chunk of around 650 km inside its territory.
The Trans-Asian Railway (TAR) was initiated in the 1960s with the objective of providing a continuous 14,000-km rail link between Singapore and Istanbul (Turkey), with possible onward connections to Europe and Africa. The link offered the potential to greatly shorten the distances and reduce transit times between countries and regions, while being a catalyst for the notion of international transport as a tool for trade expansion, economic growth and cultural exchanges.
The international events that punctuated the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s influenced the momentum of the concept during these three decades. However, with the political and economic changes that took place in the region in the 1980s and early 1990s, the development of the TAR concept was revived. Given the extent of the territory covered, the differences in standards, and differences in the levels of technical development between railways in the region, ESCAP adopted a step-by-step approach to define the TAR network. The network was initially divided into four major components which were studied separately.
There is a growing acceptance that rail has an important role to play in the national and international movement of goods and people. A number of features speak in favour of a greater utilization of rail transport in Asia like: i) Twelve of the 30 landlocked countries of the world are located on the Asian continent with the nearest ports often several thousands of kilometres away, (ii) the distances linking the main origin and destination, both domestically and internationally, are of a scale on which railways find their full economic justification, (iii) the reliance on ports to connect national economies to the world’s markets with the need to clear landside port areas quickly to avoid congestion, especially in the context of growing containerization and the development of inter-model transport, (iv) a number of countries are major exporters of mineral resources in the logistic of which rail transport plays a crucial role, (v) the continuing surge in the volumes of goods being exchanged, and (vi) the recognition of rail as an environmentally friendly and safe mode of transport.
Todate TAR routes in operation cover a distance of almost 81,000 km in 26 countries distributed as: South-East Asia: Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, Viet Nam - 12,600 km North-East Asia: China, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Mongolia, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation - 32,500 km Central Asia and Caucasus: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan - 13,200 km South Asia + Islamic Republic of Iran and Turkey: Bangladesh, India, Islamic Republic of Iran, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Turkey - 22,600 km.

— Syed Ejaz Ahmed Shah (APP)