The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is planning a project to help strengthen the regional network of roads connecting Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, and Nepal, through a technical assistance (TA) grant approved for $800,000.

The planned project would develop further the West Bengal transport corridor, which runs from Haldia port off the Bay of Bengal to as far as the state of Assam, according to an ADB release yesterday.

The corridor is of strategic importance to the economic development of northeast India and the neighbor-

ing countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal. It is also the transport backbone of West Bengal, the major trade route for India's northeastern states and neighboring Bhutan and Nepal, and provides important links with Bangladesh, the release added.

ADB approved in 2001 a $210 million loan to upgrade the West Bengal corridor, including about 340km of national highway north from Barasat, and two state highways providing connections to the Bangladesh border.

To complete the upgrading of the corridor, a bypass is needed between Barasat and the Belgharia

Expressway.

The planned project, in the pipeline for 2004, will also develop a complementary economic and social infrastructure to support the economic growth that will result from improved transport efficiency.

"The West Bengal corridor needs upgrading to national highway standard if it is to realize its full economic potential," says Tyrrell Duncan, an ADB senior transport economist.

"The improvements will support growth in subregional trade and investment to promote economic growth and poverty reduction." Once completed, it is estimated the West Bengal corridor project could benefit some 19 million people, more than a third of them classed as very poor.

Because of its importance in promoting regional economic cooperation, the transport sector figures prominently in the ADB-backed South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation Program. ADB has provided regional TAs to identify and prioritise subregional cooperation projects and to establish and consolidate the institutional framework for economic cooperation.

India will execute the TA, which is due for completion in September 2004, and contribute $200,000 toward the TA'stotal cost of$1 million.