ROUTES for a proposed railway network linking Asia and Europe and involving Myanmar were expected to be finalised later this year, a senior official from the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific said last month.

ESCAP’s chief of transport infrastructure, Mr John Moon, told a meeting in New Delhi that routes for railway network could be finalised next month, the Indian newspaper, The Telegraph, reported on September 21.

He said a formal agreement on the railway network will be ready for signing by 2006.

The proposed Trans Asian Railway has been planned since 1992 and potential routes for the network were identified in a survey carried out by ESCAP in the 1990s.

ESCAP says the proposed network will include a northern corridor linking the Korean Peninsula with Russia.

The southern corridor will be a network of lines linking mainland Southeast Asia with China, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Iran and Turkey.

Turkey in turn will link up with Russia through Armenia and Georgia.

The proposed network, which will pass through the capital cities of each country, will mainly rely on existing lines. New sections of track will be needed to complete the network.

An ESCAP survey in 1999 found that four sections of track would be needed in Myanmar for the network.

In upper Myanmar, they were a 135-kilometre section between Kalay and Tamu in Sagaing Division to link it to a railway in India’s Manipur State and a 232-kilometre line from Lashio to Muse in Shan State which would be linked with the railway in China’s Yunnan Province.

In southern Myanmar, a 345-kilometre line was needed between Dawei in Tanintharyi Division and Thanbyuzayat in Mon State, from where a 110-kilometre track would be needed to provide a link with Thailand via Three Pagoda Pass.

Under a memorandum of understanding signed by Myanmar and China last March, Beijing will provide financial assistance for building the Lashio-Muse line.

An official at ESCAP’s Bangkok headquarters, Mr Pierre Chartier, said in an email message to Myanmar Times on September 28 that the cost of building the four ‘missing links’ in Myanmar could be about US$236 million.

Mr Chartier said the formal agreement due in 2006 would be an important step towards establishing an integrated network that would assist regional economic integration.

He said ESCAP would cooperate with international financial institutions and bilateral donors to identify investment needs and priorities for the railway project.

Mr Chartier said building cross-border railway networks requires time and a high level of international cooperation and commitment.

It could be up to 25 years before the network was completed, he said.