BBIN motor vehicle deal gets cabinet green signal

The Cabinet on Monday approved the draft of the 'Motor Vehicles Agreement for the Regulation of Passenger, Personal, and Cargo Vehicular Traffic with Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal' (BBIN) aiming to boost road connectivity in the region.
The approval came from the regular weekly meeting of the Cabinet held at Bangladesh Secretariat with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair, a news agency report said.
Briefing reporters after the meeting, Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said the framework agreement is likely to be signed during the Transport Ministers meeting of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal on June 15 next in Bhutan.
Answering to a question, he said another protocol will have to be signed before the agreement comes into effect after signing of this framework agreement.
He said since all the four countries have agreed to strike this deal, the signing of the related protocol would not take that much time.
Bhuiyan also noted that for vehicular movement among the four countries, valid travel documents would be required alongside fees which would be determined by that travelling country.
In that case, he said, if a vehicle travels from Nepal to Bangladesh over India, then fees would have to be provided to both Indian and Bangladesh point for further movement.
He said the initiative was there to sign the agreement during the last Saarc Summit held in Kathmandu last year, but that could not be signed since one country could not complete the internal process.
Before finalisation of the agreement, he said, transport secretaries and other officials concerned of these four countries met in Kolkata and in Chennai of India for making further advancement on the agreement.