Press Release.............................. UNESCAP News Services

Date 27 April 2004
Press Release No: G/11/2004 (REC/161)

INDIA BECOMES TWENTY-FOURTH COUNTRY TO SIGN ASIAN HIGHWAY AGREEMENT

SHANGHAI (UN Information Services) -- A United Nations-backed push to complete a 140,000 kilometre network of standardized roadways criss-crossing the Asian continent and reaching to Europe received an added boost today, when India became the twenty-fourth country to sign a legally binding international agreement.

"India's signing will further strengthen the Asian Highway project", said Kim Hak-Su, Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), at a morning signing ceremony during UNESCAP's annual meeting in Shanghai.

Signing the International Asian Highway Agreement on behalf of India was Commerce Secretary Deepak Chatterjee.

The Asian Highway initiative is "opening up frontiers" and "changing the face of the continent", Mr. Chatterjee said at the signing ceremony.

Today's signing follows by one day that of 23 other countries. Altogether, 32 Asian nations are linked by the Highway. Mr. Chatterjee said that finalization of procedures that are prerequisite to signing the Agreement was complicated by elections taking place in India, but the Government had pushed to be ready in time for UNESCAP's annual meeting this month.

Remaining participating countries can sign on to the Agreement later, at United Nations Headquarters in New York, according to UN officials.

UNESCAP officials estimate that the 140,000 kilometre network is 83 per cent complete, with an additional $16 billion required to invest in highway upgrades and signage. Asian Highway-designated routes cover 11,400 kilometres in India alone.

For more information, contact Tim Wall of the UN Department of Public Information, e-mail: wallt@n.org; or Margaret Hanely of the UN Information Service in Bangkok, e-mail: hanley@un.org.

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