: How sleepy Siliguri is turning into international trade hub #FinanceIndia #StockMarketNEWS #Business IANS New Delhi The sleepy town of Siliguri-in the foothills of the Himalayas which has typically

@StockMarketNEWS Thu 12 Aug, 2021

Posted in: #Business #FinanceIndia #StockMarketNEWS

How sleepy Siliguri is turning into international trade hub #FinanceIndia #StockMarketNEWS #Business
IANS

New Delhi

The sleepy town of Siliguri-in the foothills of the Himalayas which has typically served as a connecting junction for people of West Bengal travelling to their favourite hill station Darjeeling or Sikkim, is quietly getting a makeover. This town is soon going to become an international trade hub.

Siliguri is strategically located with easy access to Nepal, Bangladesh and China. That is not all. The critical Siliguri Corridor marks the 60 km long and 22 km “Chicken Neck??? connecting the rest of India with the north eastern states.

“The chicken’s neck is critical as it is not very far off from the Tibet border. Therefore, security is a major concern,??? Bipul Chatterjee, executive director CUTS International said at a webinar on multi-modal transport organised by Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Policy Research and International Studies.

Not only is the Siliguri corridor important for an inclusive transport-led growth for India’s northeastern region, from the security paradigm, it is even more crucial.

“Wedged between Bangladesh to the south and the west and China to the north, the Siliguri Corridor also links India to neighbouring Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan. By an advance of just 130 kilometres, the Chinese military could cut off Bhutan, west Bengal and the north-eastern states of India. About 50 million people in north-east India would be separated from the country,??? the Lowy Institute in a study said.

The study noted that China, which already claims 90,000 square kilometres of territory in India’s north-east, has been a perennial threat to the Siliguri Corridor.

“Last year’s Chinese aggression and the Galwan Valley military standoff between India and China is an immediate wake up call for New Delhi. This is a very critical stretch that needs focus-it is important for connectivity which is related our northeast as well as the international borders,??? an analyst told India Narrative.

The Lowy Institute study added that strategically, the Siliguri Corridor is precisely the point where China could hit in case of escalating conflict between the two Asian giants. With such a twist, China could change the entire status quo along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and put India under even greater pressure.

The corridor is crucial as a gateway to the northeast. A report published by Dhaka Tribune pointed out that Siliguri will be a key point of the South Asian road network. Siliguri is also part of the Asian Highway Network, which is supposed to connect the BBIN countries with Thailand and Myanmar through Bangladesh.

However, the rapid development on this little stretch has made Bangladesh wary.