Why is it in news?

By the agreement of Bangladesh, India and Nepal on operating procedures for movement of passenger vehicles, the BBIN Motor Vehicles Agreement seems to have regained its momentum.

About the agreement

• Bangladesh, India and Nepal have agreed on the text of the operating procedures for passenger vehicle movement in the sub-region under the Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal (BBIN) Motor Vehicles Agreement (MVA) signed in June 2015, and will soon complete the internal approval processes for signing of the passenger protocol.
• The participating countries have also agreed to conduct more trial runs for cargo vehicles under the agreement.
• High-level officials of the three countries discussed the implementation of the MVA at a meeting held on 10-11 January in Bengaluru, convened and chaired by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) of the Government of India. A Bhutanese official delegation also attended the meeting as observers.
• The landmark MVA was signed by Transport Ministers of the BBIN countries in Thimphu, Bhutan on 15 June 2015.  Trial runs for cargo vehicles under the MVA were conducted along the Kolkata-Dhaka-Agartala and Delhi-Kolkata-Dhaka routesin the past. The trials were successful in establishing the Agreement’s economic benefits.Bangladesh, India, and Nepal have already ratified the MVA and have agreed to start implementation of the MVA among the three signatory countries, with Bhutan joining after it ratifies the Agreement.
• The three countries have agreed on the text of the passenger protocol, the document detailing procedures for cross-border movement of buses and private vehicles, to be signed by the three countries after completing necessary internal approval processes in their government.
• The BBIN project seems to have been rejuvenated after the setback of Bhutan expressing its desire to opt out of it.

About BBIN

• The Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal (BBIN) Initiative is a sub regional architecture of countries in Eastern South Asia, a sub region of South Asia. It meets through official representation of member states to formulate, implement and review quadrilateral agreements across areas such as water resources management, connectivity of power, transport, and infrastructure.
• 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) program, a projects-based economic cooperation initiative that brings together the BBIN countries, Maldives, Sri Lanka and more recently, Myanmar. ADB is the secretariat of SASEC.

Source

PIB