The Cabinet on Monday approved the draft of the ‘Motor Vehicles Agreement for the Regulation of Passenger, Personal, and Cargo Vehicular Traffic between 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, United News of Bangladesh reports.
Briefing reporters after the meeting, cabinet secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said this framework agreement is likely to be signed during the transport ministers meeting of the respective countries on June 15 in Bhutan.
While responding 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.
The cabinet secretary told another questioner that for vehicular movement among the four countries valid travel documents would be required alongside fees which would be determined by that host 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.
Bhuiyan 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.
He said the draft agreement has kept a scope for inclusion of any country subject to the consent of these four countries.
Besides, under the agreement, the vehicles must take permits and that no vehicle can take passengers and carry goods midway in any country. The officials of the host country can search the vehicles and that the vehicles must have insurances and comply with travel prohibitions in the host country.
He said the relevant countries could review the agreement after every three years or before, even could withdraw from the agreement giving a six months’ notice.
He said the PM earlier had shown keen interest and taken initiative for the finalisation of this agreement since she had been advocating for long to boost the connectivity and cooperation among Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal.
The Cabinet also approved the draft of the Navy (Amendment) Bill, 2015 subject to the vetting of the law ministry aimed at integrating all issues of three earlier amendments of the Navy Ordinance 1961.
He said the original law the Navy Ordinance 1961 was amended in 1976, 1977 and 1986 during military rule in Bangladesh and became null and void following the high court verdict declaring the Fifth and Seventh Amendment of the constitution illegal.
The law has now been placed in Bangla making it more time befitting as per the earlier decision of the Cabinet.
Source: New Age
