BRI alternative pins on Hanoi-New Delhi-Istanbul rail link

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By Our Special Correspondent

New Delhi, September 7: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s proposal at the ASEAN Summit to link the East Asian nations with Europe may have the railways at the heart, and could possibly hint revival of the Trans-Asia railway Project.

“A Railway line from Hanoi to New Delhi and ultimately to connect Istanbul as part of Trans Asia Railway project was conceived long back. Trans Asia Railway Project connecting ASEAN countries to Europe via Indian subcontinent will usher in prosperity all along its route,” wrote Lalit Chandra Trivedi, former GM of Railways on Linkedin.

He further explained that the Indian Railways needs to take lead to patch together a group of railway networks across south and west Asia to send a container train from Hanoi to Istanbul via Dhaka, Kolkata, Delhi, Lahore with feeder routes to Nepal. “The route, known as the Trans-Asian Railway southern corridor was identified by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) in the 1990s,” he added.
Trivedi also argued that the much awaited Rail corridor will spur economic growth and prosperity all along its 7000+ km long route, benefiting countries en route.

It may be noted that India already has a functional rail network with Bangladesh. Also, trains from Delhi were going to Lahore until a few years ago. India has a long plan to establish multi-modal connectivity with the East Asian nations.

The proposal mooted by Modi is seen to be ambitious to wrest control of the global trade from China, which is seen to be a threat to the rules-based maritime order by causing disruptions in the South China Sea.

A sea-rail corridor can potentially give the ASEAN nations the much needed resilient participation in the global supply chains. The BRI project of China, which is a pet initiative of Xi Jinping, is stated to be imploding, as Italy recently exited, while there is a growing concern globally of the pervasive debt regime imposed by Beijing on several nations.