Imphal, June 29: A host of Asian countries have entered into an agreement to start rolling the process of constructing the grand Asian Highways.

An agreement to this effect was signed at Shanghai on April 26, according to the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific, Transport and Tourism Division.

The idea of the ambitious project was conceived during the 48th session of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific in 1992.The main objective of the project, also known as Asian Land Transport Infrastructure Development, is to create a land route system of international standard for close connectivity of Asian and Pacific Nations as well as regions of UN Economic Commission and that of UN Social Commission for Western Asia.

It was prepared jointly by authorities concerned of Asian highways, Trans-Asian railways and land transport so as to facilitate swift and convenient travel and to bring Asian-Pacific countries more closer to one another.

Under the proposed project, a study was conducted from 1992 till 1994 by Asian Highway Network Development at 18 countries through which the highway will pass and existing highways of these countries have been reviewed.

An agreement to formulate the new highway was also reached in 1993 among the Nations concerned after a series of meetings involving experts.

According to the report, a symposium held at Tokyo from November 6 till 9, 1996 recommended revamping and proper development of Asian highways network.

The symposium was held after inclusion and subsequent study of new Nations to the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia-Pacific.

The report highlighted that the highway project, formulated after thorough detailed study and discussion among the countries concerned, would not only wipe out existing economic development disparities through all means of transportation but also increase tourism avenues.

On completion of the network countries like Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kyrgystan, Kazakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan would be linked to one another.

The network would encompass ASIAN highway routes number One to nine and more than one sub-region.

The UN Commission emphasized on setting up Working Group to facilitate expeditious implementation of the project and suggest meeting of the Group biennially.

In India, the highway network would transcend through the border town of Moreh in Manipur towards Myanmar and border area of Laos called Mengla with the estimated length put at 829 kilometres out of which eight kilometres would be single lane and the remaining double laned.

The highway will also cross through Imphal, Kohima, Dimapur, Nowgaon, Dawki (Meghalaya) towards Bangladesh from where it would move towards Delhi and then to Pakistan, states the report.

The Asian highway through India would also criss-cross four regions of Bangladesh, one at Bhutan, one Myanmar, three at Nepal and one in Pakistan.

Study conducted for preparation of the highway also classified existing routes as primary, class-I, II and III and suggested concerted effort from concerned countries to develop the road system to an acceptable standard.

It also stressed upon the nations to either develop new roads to meet the standard or take up necessary repairing works so as to reach international level.

Primary class in the classification refers to access-controlled highways meaning for use exclusively by automobiles and barring entries for mopeds, bicycles and pedestrian in order to ensure traffic safety for promoting of high speed running of automobiles.

Such type of roads envisages construction of pavements from either asphalt or cement concrete materials.

While four or more lanes comes under class-I with asphalt or cement concrete materials, class-II roads should be double laned with similar construction materials as class I.

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