Government officials of four nations will hold a meeting in Dhaka by the end of this month to solve the stalemate of the BBIN Motor Vehicle Agreement.
Road Transport and Highways Division (RHTD) Joint Secretary Chandan Kumar Dey told reporters yesterday that the meeting with representatives of each country had been called at the end of this month to resolve the problems.
The deal, signed on June 15 last year among Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal (BBIN) to facilitate the movement of cargo and passenger vehicles, was scheduled to come into effect from January 2016.
However, transborder motor vehicle movement has not started and it is facing a potential delay of several months as Bhutan’s Parliament is yet to ratify the agreement.
Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader had said earlier that the BBIN countries had finalised routes and that the deadline would not be missed.
Trial run for passenger vehicle movement among Bangladesh, India and Bhutan was held in November last year. But the drills for cargo vehicles has missed several deadlines.
The RTHD contracted the local logistics firm Nazrul Transport Agency (NTA) to arrange the trial cargo runs.
“We have taken several initiatives to arrange the drills for cargo vehicles countries as per the government’s direction but finally government has missed,” said Nazrul Ahmed, the MD of NTA.
“It’s true that trans-border motor vehicle movement has been pushed back by several months but we are working on it and it is an ongoing process,” said Chandan Kumar Dey.
“Now we are facing a new crisis. Bidhansava elections are coming up in West Bengal. We can only run the trials if their Election Commission allows them,” Dey said.
He said the parties would discuss all of these issues and try to resolve them at the upcoming meeting.
Bangladesh and India have completed the formalities but Nepal took three extra months to complete theirs.
Under the MVA, BBIN countries have planned six routes for goods and passenger-carrying and personal vehicles to travel across each other’s borders.
