Because of the lack of political will among leaders in the region, regional bodies have not proven effective in facilitating intra-regional connectivity.
Transport and communication system through the roadways, railways, waterways, airways and more recently optical fibre network are some of the important means of physical connectivity. But until the end of the Rana regime in 1951, Nepal virtually remained delinked in some of these sectors with most parts of the world. The only countries with which it had some limited connectivity were its two neighbours, India in the south and Tibet to the north. The era of Nepal’s connectivity with countries other than these two started only after the introduction of planning era in the country in 1956. Subsequently, the country’s connectivity not only crossed over the boundaries of two of its neighbours, India and Tibet, but it also touched the landscapes far away in South Asia and different other parts of the world.
Because of geographical proximity and close social ties, Nepal now stands somewhat connected with India through roadways, railways, airways and cross border power transmission lines. Such connectivity is natural in view of the fact that the country shares a land border with India alone among South Asian countries. Nepal’s connectivity with countries other than India is poor. It is only through the air that Nepal is directly connected to Bangladesh, Bhutan and Sri Lanka in this region.
Physical connectivity is directly co-related to trade, investment and development. The greater the connectivity, the higher is the prospect for trade, investment and development. There is hardly any country that is well placed in connectivity and poor at the same time. Rather, poor are only those countries that are lagging behind in connectivity.
Connectivity enables a country to make its outreach to new markets for the export and import of goods. It provides opportunities to export goods at a higher price and import goods at lower price. It helps the growth of agriculture, industrial, trade and services sectors. It also increases productivity, brings innovations, generates employment opportunities and accelerates the pace of socio-economic growth of the country. It also boosts up tourism, aviation, automobile, and different industries.
To maximise the gains from connectivity with the outside world, thrust needs to be given to developing connectivity within the country. In view of this reality, Nepal made a significant stride in developing connectivity at home. Much has been done to develop linkages through the roads between the rural and urban areas. The study suggests that until the 1970s, Nepal had only 2,700 kilometres of road, which has now expanded to 42,000 kilometres. <1> During last 15 years alone, nearly 1,700 kilometres of roads have been upgraded to all-season. Besides, 164 trail bridges have been constructed. As such, the travel time within the country dropped to 80 per cent. <2> It was mainly on account of connectivity that the growth of Gross Domestic Production (GDP) in Nepal that had plummeted to all the time low to 0.8 per cent in 2016 after the deadly earthquake, poor monsoon and trade disruptions in 2015 picked up to 5.6 per cent in 2017. <3>
Relations between Nepal and India are unique. No other countries of the world are as much tied together as these two countries. This is partly on account of the open border system and partly due to the national treatment provided to the citizens of one country in the other. Because of the absence of passport or visa formalities, each day hundreds of thousands of people, especially in the Nepal-India border regions, cross the border for religious, social, cultural, employment, trade and economic factors. Also, thousands of border inhabitants marry across the border each year, which keeps the relations between the two countries young forever. Uninterrupted movement of people from one country to the other has been given continuity by each political regime of the two countries for hundreds of years.
Open border between Nepal and India is a symbol of seamless connectivity. Trade and other economic activities between the two sides of the border could increase further if there is proper connectivity through the development of infrastructural and communication facilities. But the roads, railways, telecommunications and postal services are least developed in the region. It was only the Janakpur-Jaynagar Railway that connected Nepal and India for last several decades, but for last few years even its services have stopped.
Realising well the benefits from open border system, the Government of India assisted the Government of Nepal in building Integrated Check-Posts (ICPs) at four main points at Nepal-India border, including at Raxaul (India)-Birgunj (Nepal), Sunauli (India)-Bhairahawa (Nepal), Jogbani (India)-Biratnagar (Nepal) and Nepalgunj Road ((India)-Nepalgunj (Nepal). <4> Besides, the Government of India agreed to develop crossborder railway links at five locations through Nepal-India border, including at Jaynagar (India) to Bardibas (Nepal), Jogbani (India) to Biratnagar (Nepal), Nautanwa (India) to Bhairahawa (Nepal), Rupaidiha (India) to Nepalgunj (Nepal), and New Jalpaiguri (India) to Kakarbhitta (Nepal). Significantly, work on the Jaynagar-Bardibas, which also involves the conversion of 51 kilometres of the railway line from Jaynagar to Bijalpura into broad-gauge and its further extension up to 17 kilometres to Bardibas has already begun. Similarly, work on the 17.65 kilometres Jogbani-Biratnagar railway line from Jogbani to Biratnagar is also in progress. <5>
India played a key role in developing and modernising Nepal’s infrastructure structure, including the roads and airports. At a time Kathmandu had no connection with any other part of the country, India built Tribhuvan Highway in the mid-1950s. India’s share in Nepal’s longest East-West Highway is 75 per cent. Equally important is India’s support to Nepal in constructing Pokhara–Sunauli Highway that links western part of the hills to Terai. Similarly, India also played a key role in building Nepal’s Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu and small airports in various other towns in the country. India’s support to Nepal in building Optical Fiber project along East-West corridor is equally important. Importantly, all the vital projects in infrastructure and communication sector in Nepal were built by India in grants.
India is the only country with whom Nepal has a common border in South Asia. Over the years, the two countries have made efforts to improve their connectivity through the roads, railways and airways. In the sector of aerial connectivity, the Nepal Airlines connects to Delhi. Besides, Air India and Jet Airways of India operate to Kathmandu. Nepal is connected to Dhaka through Biman Bangladesh Airlines. Druk Air of Bhutan operates to Kathmandu. <6> The Himalayan Airlines and Nepal Airlines connect Kathmandu to Colombo of Sri Lanka. But Nepal does not have any direct air connectivity with Pakistan, Maldives and Afghanistan. Earlier, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) used to operate to Kathmandu, but its services have stopped.
Nepal used regional and subregional organisations in South Asia to develop its connectivity with different countries of the region. Towards this end, the country became a founder member of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and later on joined subregional groupings like the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) and the Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal (BBIN) Initiative. The country also exhibited its interest in diversifying its connectivity to South East Asia through BIMSTEC. A brief mention is made of this account below:
Ever since the establishment of SAARC in 1985, Nepal tried to enhance its outreach to its member countries through trade for which it signed agreements like SAPTA (1993) and SAFTA (2006). During the 18th SAARC Summit in November 2014, Nepal signed SAARC Framework Agreement for Energy Cooperation to develop connectivity in power sector in South Asia. However, agreements on such ambitious projects like the vehicular movement and railway connectivity among the South Asian countries failed to gain momentum due to non-cooperation from Pakistan. Following the terror attack on Indian Army camp in Uri in 2016 in which 17 soldiers were killed and 19 soldiers were injured, <7> India suspected Pakistan’s alleged hand behind this unfortunate incident. As a result, the 19th SAARC Summit that was planned to be held in Islamabad in Pakistan on 15-16 November 2016 could not materialise due to its boycott by India and some other countries and so it is almost in a limbo state.
Nepal has also been trying to enhance its connectivity with the outside world through the development of transport and communication facilities under the framework of subregional body, BIMSTEC. In this eight-member body, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand are the members. Whereas five countries in this body, including Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka are from South Asia; Myanmar and Thailand are from South East Asia. <8>
Currently, Nepal holds BIMSTEC’s chair position. The country is expected to host the fourth BIMSTEC Summit by the end of 2017 in which such issues as related to connectivity, trade, tourism, investment, energy and technology transfer are likely to be discussed. Nepal is more focused on developing linkages with BIMSTEC member countries through roads with the expectation that it could accelerate the pace of economic growth in the region and strengthen people-to-people relations. <9>
At the initiative taken by India, the transport ministers of four countries in South Asia, including Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal (BBIN) signed Motor Vehicles Agreement (MVA) at Thimpu in Bhutan in June 2015 with a view to reducing travel time and cost in transporting goods and also to ensuring seamless connectivity among the countries of the region. It was expected that the movement of private, public and commercial vehicles of all the four countries across their territories would not only boost up the volume of trade and economic cooperation in energy sector, but that could also ensure better people to people relations. Nepal is likely to get better access to India, apart from Bhutan and Bangladesh, under this initiative. Additionally, the country might also benefit in water resources management, power, transport and infrastructure sectors.
In regard to the MVA agreement, Bangladeshi transport Minister Obaidul Quader observed, "Let our borders no longer be treated as separators but connectors." <10> However, the MVA that was planned to be implemented within six months time from the date of signing of the agreement after its ratification by the countries concerned could not move as per the expectation. Bhutan's parliament did not ratify MVA agreement. And, other countries of this group are also yet to meet preconditions for making MVA operational.
Crossborder connectivity between Nepal and India is exemplary in South Asia. Yet, a lot needs to be done to facilitate connectivity between the two countries. Most of the link roads and railway network between the two countries are still in the construction phase and their progress is at snail’s pace. The potentiality of connectivity between Nepal and India through waterways and the optical fibre is innovative, but as yet these sectors remain unexplored. Earlier, Nepal used to blame India for the slow implementation of bilateral projects. But the execution of many of such projects is still in dilly dally position even after India provided required funds to Nepal government for their implementation.
The regional bodies like SAARC, BIMSTEC and BBIN Initiative have not proved that effective in facilitating intra-regional connectivity in transport and communication sector. It is not that resources are lacking for some of these activities, but more than that there is a lack of political will among the leaders of the countries of the region to do so. A fresh initiative needs to be made to address the issues that confront connectivity. Execution of projects aimed at developing connectivity at bilateral, regional or subregional level needs to be accorded priority by each country concerned.
<1> The World Bank, “Strengthening Connectivity in Nepal,” February 17, 2016, in worldbank.org
<2> Ibid.
<3> Asian Development Bank. 2017. Asian Development Bank Outlook, in https://www.adb.org/countries/nepal/economy
<4> Embassy of India, "Development Partnership," https://www.indianembassy.org.np
<5> Ibid.
<6> Muhammad Adnan, “Intra-regional aerial connectivity within South Asia,” Business Recorder, June 2, 2015 in fb.brecorder.com
<7> TNN & Agencies, “Uri terror attack: 17 soldiers killed, 19 injured in strike on Army camp,” The Times of India, September 30, 2016.
<8> BIMSTEC, Country Profile, in http://bimstec.org/country-profile/
<9> Post Report, "Nepal proposes date for Bimstec summit at senior officials' meeting," the Kathmandu Post, February 8, 2017.
<10> Jha, Hari Bansh, "Road Less Travelled," My Republica, July 28, 2015.
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Hari Bansh Jha is a Visiting Fellow at ORF. Formerly a professor of economics at Nepal's Tribhuvan University, Hari Bansh’s areas of interest include, Nepal-China-India strategic ...
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