BBIN – Motors Vehicles Agreement

BBIN an ambitious initiative by four countries of South Asia i.e Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal with the aim to facilitate movement of vehicles carrying cargo and passengers in each other’s territory without the need for trans-shipment of goods from one country’s truck to another’s at the border. As of January, 2018, three countries viz. India, Bangladesh and Nepal have agreed on the text of the passenger protocol, the document detailing procedures for cross-border movement of buses and private vehicles. Bhutan had earlier signed the agreement but failed to ratify it.

Background

The agreement came in the backdrop of Kathmandu summit 2014 wherein India proposed SAARC Motor Vehicle Agreement which could not progress due to resistance by Pakistan. So, India conceived BBIN on similar lines.

It was signed by all the member countries in June, 2015 but its enforcement had not yet come into play because of non-ratification by Bhutan (Other three countries have ratified).

Perceived advantages of the agreement

This agreement enables the vehicles to enter into any of the four countries without need for trans-shipment of goods from one country’s truck to another’s at the border. Under the system, cargo vehicles are tracked electronically; E-permits are issued online and sent electronically to all land ports. Vehicles are fitted with an electronic seal that alerts regulators every time the container door is opened. This saves not only time but also cost. For example, earlier a truck would travel 1540 kilometres through Indian territory to reach from Kolkata to Agartala. Once this agreement is in force, the same truck travelled only 640 kilometres via Dhaka. Thus,

• Once the agreement comes into force it will save a lot of time in movement of goods between member nations.
• It will create a seamless supply chain thus reducing the cost of doing business across borders and promoting the overall economic development of the region.
• It will strengthen the sub regional unity between these nations. Once the connectivity will be established then it can be further extended to southeast and east Asia.

Role of Asian Development Bank

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has been providing technical, advisory, and financial support to the BBIN MVA initiative as part of its assistance to the south Asia sub-regional economic cooperation (SASEC) programme, a projects-based economic cooperation initiative that brings together the BBIN countries, Maldives, Sri Lanka and more recently, Myanmar.

Current status of the project

The ratification of the agreement was stuck in Bhutan’s upper house in 2017 due to which they have postponed the decision till 2018 parliamentary elections. As of January, 2018, Bangladesh, India and Nepal have given nod to operating procedures for movement of passenger vehicles under the agreement. The three countries have also agreed to conduct more trial runs for cargo vehicles under the agreement. Trial runs for Cargo vehicles were earlier conducted along the Kolkata-Dhaka-Agartala and Delhi-Kolkata- Dhaka routes.

Reasons for Opposition in Bhutan

The bill which was approved by lower house of  Bhutanese parliament  is struck in its upper house due to following reasons :

• The act will increase the traffic in Bhutan from other nations and will hamper livelihood of the Bhutanese truckers. So, Bhutan wants a cap to be fixed on the number of vehicles entering its territory.
• Being the smallest nation, among all four members it fears that it will be overwhelmed with tourists and pollution from all other member nation which will lead to environmental damage.
• Apart from these there are also political reasons. The govt fears that the permitting Nepal’s trucks in their territory would upset their electorate, thus, can suffer a big blow in 2018 parliamentary elections.

Significance

The significance of this agreement can be ascertained from various angles. Firstly, Since Pakistan was not involved here; it took only 6 months to flag off the first truck to run between India-Bangladesh-India route. This was second major multilateral agreement between South Asian Countries and marks heralding the idea of SAARC-minus-Pakistan {First I consider BIMSTEC, which was launched on initiation of New Delhi}. The further events have further strengthened that notion. Secondly, it is first stage of the $8-billion road connectivity project between these four countries and Myanmar and Thailand. The latter two countries have agreed to develop a similar agreement and take ahead this economic cooperation to the door of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region