Islamabad plans border trade, transit traffic regime

KABUL government, planning to put in place a border management regime to deal with increased trade and transit traffic through Torkham and Chaman borders, has approached the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for assistance.

The ADB was likely to give Islamabad id=”mce_marker”20 million for modernising border point infrastructure to make available quality border-crossing services. A fact-finding mission of the bank will visit Pakistan early next year to evaluate the project, Dawn reported on Friday.

Land acquisition, design and layout of border crossing points in line with security requirements, installation of inspection-related and information and communication technology equipment, changes in cross-border processes and procedures and capacity development of officials are among key project components.

According to the newspaper, the project will facilitate swift cross-border processing of goods and people at Torkham and Chaman. It will reduce waiting time for people and goods to cross the frontier.

PAN Monitor/mud