India takes next step in Trans-Asia

[mizzima@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: India takes next step in Trans-Asian Rail project

India takes next steps in Trans-Asian rail project

New Delhi, Aug. 10 :
Asian Age newspaper, August 11, 1999

India has taken another step in the direction of building the much
talked-about Trans-Asian Rail corridor connecting Asia with Europe.

The TAR project consists of building rail-land bridges divided into
three corridors for providing long-distance international surface
transport links between the two continents.

India is to form the southern corridor of the project linking Singapore
to Turkey via Burma, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Iran. The northern and
central corridors will pass through China.

The second meeting of the southern corridor task force met here on
Monday to familiarize its rail managers with one another?s operational
characteristics and maintenance philosophies in the areas of rail
tracks, rolling stock, signaling train and crew scheduling.

However, Pakistan, member of the southern corridor task force, did not
attend the meeting, official sources said. Officials of the Paris based
International Union of Railway also attended the meeting, held under the
presidentship of railway board chairman V.K Agarwal. (PTI)