By rail, from New Delhi to Hanoi

External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha responded favourably to the proposal and promptly asked for a feasibility study to be carried out at the earliest to take matters ahead. Efforts have apparently begun in New Delhi to co-ordinate with MGC countries for identifying a company to carry out the study and chart out the possible rail route.

Starting from New Delhi, the route will pass through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and culminate at Hanoi in Vietnam. The immediate purpose of the project, South Block officials say, will be to improve transport links between India and MGC countries.

But in the long run the project aims at tapping the tremendous trade potential in the area. In fact, improving transport links was one of the key areas identified in the Programme of Action for MGC at Hanoi in May 2001 and was later stressed in the Greater Mekong Subregional Cooperation Summit in Cambodia.

Given that this was only the third meeting of foreign ministers of countries from this group, official sources say, the proposal for such an ambitious project only underlines the strides being made in cooperation between New Delhi and the South East Asian countries.

It must be noted that during the formative stages of the MGC, Myanmar had assured New Delhi of acting as a stragetic gateway for India into South East Asia. The proposal mooted by Win Awng at the June 20 meeting of MGC foreign ministers emphasises the improved co-ordination between New Delhi and Yangon on strategic and economic issues.

The construction of the railway link, according to South Block officials, holds the potential of transforming the economy of the North-Eastern states which have been reeling under isolation. The Government is, in fact, hopeful that the enhanced opportunities for trade by way of this link will provide new avenues for employment and help stem militancy in this part of the country while giving the much-needed boost to its neglected local economy.

Experts point out that the link would open up trade corridors for New Delhi with areas beyond the Mekong region as it will link up with the grand Trans-Asian Railway Network being constructed in the ASEAN and Indo-China region. The project which was taken up seven years ago has been progressing rapidly connecting Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore with MGC countries as well as the southern China province of Yunnan.

Given the lack of progress in improving trade and transport links on the western flank, analysts say, this project at least allows India to fan out eastwards and provide impetus to overland trade with South East Asia which is virtually non-existent at present.

The prospect of trade also lends new opportunities for people-to-people contact across India’s eastern boundaries, which is often said to lie at the heart of furthering the economic development of the North-East.