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China shelves Ctg-Kunming rail link plan

China has shelved the proposed railway project between Chittagong and Kunming due to opposition from Myanmar.

However, China is good to go for the road project connecting the two countries to boost bilateral trade and commerce.

Highly placed Bangladesh government sources said the Myanmar government late last year suddenly refused to allow China to build the rail links through its territory, irking the Bangladeshi and Chinese governments.

Li Jeming, vice-minister for commerce of Yunnan provincial government, during a press briefing for Asian journalists in Kunming told The Daily Star, “We're always keen on establishing a rail link between Kunming and Chittagong, but we have to give up the idea for now as Myanmar is against it.”

Replying to The Daily Star, he said the Yunnan provincial government had even provided Myanmar with $2 billion financial support so that rail lines could be built on its territory.

He said they were now putting their attention on building railway link between Kunming and Laos, which he said would ultimately connect Thailand.

When a Myanmarese journalist asked if China could do anything to convince Myanmar, Li said, “We could do some work to make the government of Myanmar understand the need for rail lines and how they would benefit from it but it is not our major responsibility. Rather it is the people of Myanmar who must tell their government of their needs.”

If the Myanmar people realise this, their government might come forward, said the junior minister, adding that if the Chittagong-Kunming rail connectivity could be established, all three countries would benefit.

Meanwhile, LGRD and Cooperatives Minister Syed Ashraful Islam told The Daily Star that they have heard that Myanmar had been opposing the construction of rail link. He said the work for the road connectivity would go on.

Ashraf said a road show would be held in Kunming and Dhaka soon to tell people about the business opportunities the connectivity would create in the countries.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had urged China several times to construct the rail and road links between the two cities, which are considered by many as the Chinese gateway to South and South East Asia.

In March 2010, Hasina visited Kunming and expressed her interest in road and rail links between Chittagong and Kunming.

After her visit, Governor of Yunnan province Qin Guangrong expressed his government's desire to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with Bangladesh on road and rail communications between the two countries.

In October, 2010, Chinese Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs Liu Zhen in Beijing said China would construct road and rail links between Chittagong and Kunming via Myanmar to boost Sino-Bangladesh cooperation.

Bangladesh, the same year, made a plan to build rail lines and roads up to the Myanmar border by 2014 at a cost of Tk 1,852 crore. The government had aimed at making a corridor for the proposed Trans-Asian Railway and connecting to Kunming through Myanmar.

However, highly placed government sources claimed that the rail project had been shelved in the interest of India, which opposed Bangladesh becoming connected to its powerful neighbour in the Far East.

They said the Prime Minister's Office would try to convince Myanmar and India to allow construction of the rail line in the greater interest of the region.

4 leaders booked for killing driver

Four leaders of BNP’s front organisations were shown arrested on Friday in a case filed for killing a driver by torching a bus at the city’s Khilgaon on April 21.

This April 22 file photo shows a bus at the capital's Khilgaon burns with its driver inside.

The defendants are: Habib-un-Nabi Khan Sohel, president of Jatiyatabadi Swechchhasebak Dal President, its General Secretary Mir Sharafat Ali Safu, Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal President Sultan Salahuddin Tuku and Jubo Dal General Secretary Saiful Islam Nirob.

Sub-inspector of Khilgaon Police Station Moksedur Rahman, also the investigation officer (IO) of the case, produced them before a Dhaka court and sought a 10-day remand in the case.

Police re-arrested them at the gate of Kashimpur Central Jail after they were released Thursday night in an arson case filed for torching a bus in front of Prime Minister's Office during the April 29 hartal.

Metropolitan Magistrate Harun-or-Rashid fixed June 20 for hearing the remand prayer as the prosecution failed to place case diary regarding the progress of investigation into the case.

The court also sent them to jail and directed jail authorities to produce the accused before it on June 20 at a hearing on the remand prayer.

In the remand prayer, the IO said the arrestees were indirectly involved with the killing. So, they need to be remanded to find out vital clue about the killing and whereabouts of the other responsible for the killing.

Bus driver Badar Ali Beg, 48, was burnt alive while asleep inside his bus that set alight in front of Khidmah Hospital on the afternoon of April 21.

Pranab mokharji to run for president

Bringing an end to weeks of speculation, India's Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee was Friday chosen by the country's ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) as its candidate for the president's post.

The nomination of Mukherjee, 77-year-old Congress veteran from West Bengal's Bankura district, was made at a meeting of the UPA, chaired by its Chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Mukherjee, if elected, would be the first Bengali to become the Indian president.

Key ally -- Trinamool Congress -- chief Mamata Banerjee along with another ally Samajwadi Party (SP) has floated the names of APJ Abdul Kalam and two others.

Mamata, however, did not attend the UPA meeting.

Mukherjee, who was elected to Rajya Sabha in 1969, was for a long time member of the Upper House before his first direct election to Lok Sabha in 2004 from Jangipur in Murshidabad district of West Bengal.

He repeated his victory in 2009 elections but had expressed a desire not to contest elections again in view of his advancing age.