NEW DELHI, India – A rail and ports deal linking the Middle East and South Asia was announced Saturday at the G20 Summit meeting in New Delhi. The United States, Saudi Arabia, the European Union, United Arab Emirates and other G20 partners agreed to explore a shipping corridor project to augment trade flows between Europe and India, National News online reported.
The corridor would link Middle East countries by railroad and connect them to India by port, helping the flow of energy and trade from the Gulf to Europe, and helping cut shipping times, costs and fuel use.
The corridor is meant to counter China’s vast investment in global infrastructure, aiming to increase rail-bound trade between India and Europe by up to 40%.
In the next 60 days, working groups will put together a fuller plan and set timelines. The first phase will involve identifying areas that need investment and where physical infrastructure can be connected between countries. Plans can be put into place over the next year so that the project can progress to financing and construction, Network News reported.
I think this plan is to avoid Russia. China is Standard RR gauge, 4′ 8 1/2″, 1435 mm, while India is Indian gauge, 5′ 6″, 1676 mm.
Will we need a Himalaya Base Tunnel? The route seems to include “The Hump” where the AAF flew supplies from India to China in WWII. They needed supercharged engines on the C-47’s to deal with the altitude.
If only India could squeeze two standard gauge rails in between their broad gauge rails for a 4 rail mainline international Silk Route track(s), it would be a big step for their and the global economy . It would be a tight fit, perhaps with specialized fabricated rails for that particular purpose. I would hate to see that accomplished with 3 rails.
The Russian- Iranian corridor via Azerbijan deal was signed in May. Russia will supply 1.3 billion Euros to Iran to finish the route.
China’s Belt and Road requires a link from Tehran to Ankara because at the moment the only rail link would be Moscow to Warsaw, which is precarious. With China going into a recession, not sure if they or the BRICS alliance can finance anything that large.
Content – free proposal without some details and a map. Without knowing more, this sounds like an economic partnership among a bunch of nations fighting slo-mo wars with each other.
No map available yet.