Attari check-post to be completed next year

India proposes to develop 13 integrated check-posts.

KARACHI: India has proposed the setting up of 13 integrated check-posts at its borders with different countries of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) at a cost of 6.35 billion Indian rupees to facilitate connectivity among member states, said High Commissioner of India Sharat Sabharwal on Wednesday.

The check-post at Attari, the India-Pakistan border, will have the most modern facilities for transport of goods and passenger traffic and work will be completed next year at a cost of 1.5 billion Indian rupees, said Sabharwal at a Saarc seminar titled ‘Intra-regional connectivity in South Asia: challenges and prospects’. Work at Attari commenced in February this year. The seminar was held to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Saarc. Talking about measures to improve regional connectivity, he referred to the agreement on motor vehicles and railways proposed by India for running a container train from Bangladesh to Pakistan via India and ending in Afghanistan.

He expressed hope that Pakistan would soon withdraw its reservations about the motor vehicles agreement and the container train proposal.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 9^th, 2010.