Asian highway in the offing

The project is being implemented under the aegis of the United Nations Economic & Social Commission for the Asia Pacific (UNESCAP).

Of the five sub-divisional routes of the Asian Highway project, two routes enter through India, and one through Nepal.

AH 1 enters India at the Indo-Pak border at Wagah and passes via Delhi to Kolkata and enters Myanmar from Dawki in Meghalaya, the AH 2, also entering from Wagah border, will go to Nepal via Delhi and then re-enter India in West Bengal and terminate at Bangladesh.

The concerned Indian officials, who are also leading the South Asian project to construct roadway network in the region, have started to reconstruction and maintenance of the exiting roads.

The Asian highway network provides access to Asian capitals, major industrial and agricultural centres, major air, sea and river ports, container terminals and depots, and tourist destinations.

These transportation linkages between the two sub-regions, once realised, will facilitate the movement of goods and passengers and will help generate greater business opportunities in trade, investment, services and tourism.

Four categories of roads have been prescribed under the Asian Highway network — the Primary Expressways, Class I four-lane highways, Class II two-lane highways that are 7-metre wide and Class III two-lane highways that are six-metre wide.

India is likely to choose the green colour code signage system for the AH network so that it can be in sync with the other National Highway signage system. Of the total AH network, so far 23,700 kms are still below Class III standards. Altogether US $ 26 billion has been allocated for the construction of the highway.