India may go slow on Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal Motor Vehicle Agreement

NEW DELHI: India is likely to go slow on the implementation of the Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal Motor Vehicles Agreement (BBIN-MVA), keeping in mind the sentiments of close partner Bhutan where a section of the political establishment is opposing the initiative allegedly at the behest of the local transporters lobby.
India is ready to adjust to the pace of Bhutan in fully implementing the project and allow Thimphu to get internal dynamics in place, people familiar with the matter told ET. Changes in the connectivity project, or an additional protocol to it to suit Bhutan's requirements, are also not ruled out.

India's approach on such initiatives are different from that of China, where Beijing weighs heavily on policymakers of partner countries to implement projects, officials said. But Delhi has always given priority to sentiments of the partners, they added.

Under pressure from truckers, the Bhutanese government is likely to withdraw a Bill it had introduced in the country's Parliament last year to ratify the BBIN Agreement for Regulation of Passenger and Cargo Vehicular Traffic. The Upper House of Bhutan's Parliament had refused to ratify the pact, even though the lower house approved it and tried to convince seniors of the significance of this sub-regional connectivity initiative.

The next session of Bhutan’s Parliament would commence on May 3. The Bill would possibly be withdrawn on May 8, unless something extraordinary happens by then. In the upper house, National Council, several members argued that the project would hurt the unique culture, tradition, environment, religion and economy of Bhutan. The National Council finally rejected the Bill in November, raising as many as 15 objections.

Given its special ties with Bhutan and elections in the Himalayan state in 2018, New Delhi is not compelling Thimpu to ratify the pact, experts on the region explained. The Modi government is not in favour of weakening the current Bhutanese Prime Minister by forcing him to expedite the ratification process. Meanwhile, development on the bilateral vehicular arrangement between India and Bhutan will continue at its current pace and form.

The BBIN-MVA was inked by the governments of Bhutan, Bangladesh India and Nepal in June 2015 and is aimed at smoother connectivity within the four nations. This pact will complement another such agreement among the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), which comprises countries in South and Southeast Asia.

Bangladesh, Nepal and India have already raitified BBIN-MVA and New Delhi and Dhaka have even went ahead to conduct a dry run of cargo movement under it.

The Bhutanese government has informed India that it would need more time to convince local transporters about the benefits of BBIN MVA. Experts on the subject hinted that Bhutan had agreed to join BBIN without undertaking proper internal consultations.

The BBIN motor vehicle pact was conceived after a similar agreement within the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation was blocked by Pakistan in November 2014. Once ratified by all the four nations, the BBIN agreement would have made it possible for vehicles registered in one country to move into or transit through the other three without hassles.

Recently, the Modi government has approved India's accession to the UN TIR Convention, the global standard for international freight customs transit.

This milestone decision will facilitate goods transport and transit, putting India and her neighbours at the centre of efforts to boost overland trade and regional integration across South Asia and beyond.

The TIR Convention can be an instrument for movement of goods along the International North-South Transport Corridor and would be helpful in boosting trade with the Central Asian Republics and the Commonwealth of Independent States, particularly using ports in Iran, like the Chabahar port, the government had said.