Presentation made at 3rd Northeast Connectivity Summit, 2016 on Inalnd waterways by Mr. Asish Bhadra,Senior Transport Specialist, World Bank,Dhaka

1. Current Engagements
Addressing Growth and Inclusion

9. Connectivity-Road Safety-Climate Resiliency
• Road Safety (road death victims contribute 42% of monthly income in poor rural HHs;
70% of poor rural families suffering a road death saw HH income decrease)

11. 11
US$107 million IDA
First regional IDA project for India
Board date June 12, 2014
Challenges:
 Low road density in state
 Poor connectivity
 Difficult terrain
 Low level of trade and availability of jobs
 Low trade production/economic
capacity
Development Objective:
 Increase transport connectivity along
regional trade corridors in Mizoram
through (i) Improvement of Priority
Cross-border Roads and Trade-Related
Infrastructure; and (ii) Road Sector
Modernization and Performance
Enhancement through Institutional
Strengthening
Mizoram State Roads II Regional Transport Connectivity Project
Enhancing connectivity to Bangladesh and Myanmar

12. A Case for Regional Integration
• It has happened before – One of the most integrated region
previously
• Political Will - India Bangladesh water transport and trade protocol
initially for 2 yrs. increased to 5 yrs. with automatic renewal.
Coastal Treaty
• No Recourse – Difficult to build multiple bridges across the river
• Success story from the subcontinent - A case from Bangladesh
• Value proposition - reliability
• An opportunity – knowledge input (institutional strengthening)
• Value proposition for internal stakeholders: ‘Poverty Reduction’ –
Cascading effect for significant % having access to IWT only
• A step towards a comprehensive multimodal network
• The Usuals - Environment friendly – no LA issue (which would have
been, if it were for roads) – low cost – low congestion