Bus, tram and train passengers in Germany will no longer have to wear masks. But the health minister is still recommending their voluntary use to prevent the spread of coronavirus infections. People on public transit in Germany will be allowed to travel bare-faced for the first time in almost three years from Thursday, with the obligation to wear masks to protect against COVID-19 infections being dropped nationwide. The mandatory wearing of masks on long-distance trains and buses had been due to last until April, but the federal Cabinet recently decided to lift the regulation ahead of time in view of the falling number of COVID-19 cases in the country What are the mask-wearing rules now? Passengers on all forms of public transportation, both long-distance and regional, will no longer have to wear masks, with the nine states that have until now maintained the obligation for local trips also lifting the regulation.  However, FFP2 masks, which are roughly equivalent to N95 masks in the US, will still have to be worn by visitors to hospitals, care homes and doctor and dentists' offices until April 7.  German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach, who is known for taking a very cautious stance on regulations to prevent the spread of infection, has recommended that people still voluntarily wear masks. What has been said about the lifting of the mask mandate? The neoliberal Free Democratic Party (FDP), a member of Germany's three-party ruling coalition and which favors light-handed regulation by government in general, has hailed the move and claimed to have played a major role in bringing it about. The party's general secretary, Bijan Djir-Sarai, told the dpa news agency that if his party had not put pressure on the government, the regulation would not have been dropped ahead of the earlier deadline, "and we would still have to sit in trains and buses with masks." "All restrictions on freedom have to be proportionate and must be kept in place only for as long as is absolutely necessary," he added. "Germany has overcome the pandemic. Now it is important to end the last state-imposed coronavirus measures as well, such as the mask mandate in doctors' offices." Upholding the mask mandate on trains has become increasingly difficult in Germany, with many passengers venting their anger on personnel at being forced to wear one. National rail operator Deutsche Bahn reported 25% more attacks on its staff last year than in the year before, with most acts of aggression — some of which led to serious injury — being attributed to anger over the mandate. A spokesman for the VDV, an umbrella organization of public transit authorities and companies, told dpa that in its view, "a mandate has long been unnecessary in view of the pandemic situation." "It was becoming more and more difficult to make passengers comply and to explain to them why people didn't have to wear a mask in fully occupied planes or sold-out concert halls, but still did on the way to the airport or the concert on buses and trains," he said.

Bangladesh’s capital now has its first metro rail, a Japanese-funded project that aims to ease commuting in one of the most congested cities in the world.  A section of the over 20-kilometer (12.427 miles) urban rail project, known as Line 6, was inaugurated by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wednesday. The line connects the northern zone of Dhaka to a hub of government offices and hospitals in the middle for now. Eventually it will cut through the city to the financial district of Motijheel in the south.  While the project is likely to bring significant changes to how people travel in Dhaka, its inauguration will also give some much-needed political mileage to Hasina’s government. With elections expected in January 2024, the leader and her party are under pressure as the South Asian nation’s foreign currency reserves dwindle and it battles inflation and energy crises.  The metro rail “added another feather” to Bangladesh’s cap and is “another milestone in development,” Hasina said at the opening ceremony. She was the first passenger to ride the train amid tight security. The service will open to the public Thursday. In Dhaka, with 10.3 million people packed in 305 square kilometers (117.76 square miles), the average driving speeds have dropped to less than 7 kilometers (4.3496 miles) an hour right now from 21 kilometers an hour 10 years ago. Given the current trends, a World Bank report has estimated it could drop as low as 4 kilometers an hour, slower than walking.  “It’s an extremely important development for a city like Dhaka,” Martín Rama, a consultant with the World Bank’s presidency and former regional chief economist for South Asia, said in an interview. “If you look at the case of India in many cities, it has changed a lot the way people go to work. It’s a safe means of transportation, for instance, for women, which in South Asia is not trivial.” At the same time, Rama said it would be “naive to think that congestion problems will go away” immediately because every time a country builds public transport infrastructure and adds more capacity, 90-95% of the freed up road space is taken up by additional traffic.  Traffic congestion wastes about 3.2 million working hours each day and costs Bangladesh’s economy billions of dollars every year. Dhaka is the seventh least livable in a list of 172 cities in the world on the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Livability Index for 2022. “The bigger your city is, the more time you spend typically commuting,” said Rama. “So it’s a congestion cost that detracts from what the city has to offer.” Bangladesh approved 219.85 billion taka ($2.1 billion) fund for the Line 6 project in 2012, with Japan providing 165.95 billion taka at the time. The cost later escalated to 334.72 billion taka as the authorities added a new section linking the metro rail to Kamalapur, the central railway station that connects Dhaka and the rest of the country.  Japan is also funding two other urban railway lines in Dhaka. When completed, three metro lines are projected to carry two million passengers daily, according to Japan International Cooperation Agency’s website.   The Dhaka metro rail follows six months after Hasina inaugurated the country’s longest river bridge, spanning over 6 kilometers over the Padma River. That is expected to connect 80 million people — half the country’s population — linking the southwest to the northeast. 

Marking the official launch of the eastern section of the North-South railway corridor, the first rail transit cargo from Russia to India entered Iran on Tuesday through the Sarakhs border crossing. Carrying 39 containers, the Russian transit train left Chekhov station on July 6, traveling 3,800 kilometers through Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to enter Iran. The cargo will be transported to Bandar Abbas port in southern Iran through a 1600 km rail route to finally be sent to India's Nhava Sheva Port via sea, reported Tehran Times. The Russian train was allowed into the Iranian border in a ceremony attended by First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber along with transport, oil, industry, and agriculture ministers as well as the vice president for science and technology. Speaking at this ceremony, Mokhber stressed the Iranian government's determination for expanding trade with neighbouring countries, especially in the transit sector, reported Tehran Times "The transit capacity of the country has increased to 20 million tons and by planning and taking appropriate measures, transiting 300 million tons of commodities per year can be reached," said Mokhber. The North-South Corridor consists of three route sections, namely East, West, and Middle. Iran and Russia are also cooperating in the maritime sector to use the Caspian Sea to shorten the transit route from Russia to India. International North-South Transport Corridor is a corridor to increase trade between India and Russia. This trade route is 7200 Km long and the transport of freight is through a multi-mode network of roads, ships, and railways. This route connects India and Russia through Iran and Azerbaijan. The corridor is aimed at reducing the carriage cost between India and Russia by about 30 per cent and bringing down the transit time from 40 days by more than half. Earlier this week, the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) announced that it has assigned 300 containers to transport goods between Russia and India, reported Tehran Times. The mentioned containers have been allocated to execute the first phase of a program for transiting Russian commodities to India via the North-South Corridor using the Caspian Sea. "According to the plans made by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, in the first phase, 300 containers have been considered for transporting cargos to Russia, and if the demand increases, the number of these containers will increase continuously," an IRISL statement said. Russia, India, and Iran are the founding member states of INSTC. The agreement was signed in 2002. There are 13 member states of the INSTC project - India, Iran, Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Tajikistan, Kyrgystan, Oman, Turkey, Syria and Ukraine. Bulgaria is the Observer State. The Baltic countries like Latvia and Estonia have also expressed willingness to join the INSTC. India shows interest in extending INSTC membership to countries like Afghanistan and Uzbekistan. Establishing a land route via Kabul and Tashkent to form the INSTC's "Eastern corridor" would maximise the potential of this collaboration. Also, India wants to include Chabahar port to be included in the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC). The potential export sectors in India that benefit from INSTC include perishable goods (fruits and vegetables), high-value items like ATMs, industrial printers, 3D printers, robotic assembly accessories, etc., cross-border e-commerce, and sectors that are likewise. Source: ANI

Much like the rest of South Asia, the landlocked Himalayan nation Nepal is confronted with a lack of infrastructure. Challenges on regional connectivity, restrictive trade policies and inefficient procedures have been some of the obstacles hindering trade in the region. In order to overcome these challenges, India and Nepal have inked treaties and trade agreements that address concerns for infrastructural development and envisage the establishment of a regional cooperation mechanism. As many as 98 percent of Nepal's transit trade takes place through India and 65 percent of Nepal's total trade is with India. India continues to lend sustained support to Nepal in building infrastructure, particularly to facilitate air traffic routes for cargo, as also faster and cheaper waterways and railways for transporting goods across borders. With Indian assistance, many infrastructural projects are either being undertaken, are nearing completion or have been concluded in Nepal, with the primary objective of bolstering trade by way of improved connectivity. India has operationalized many such projects in Nepal which include big and small highways, bridges, for road construction in the Terai region. Approximately 5,253 crore Indian rupies worth of road projects are being implemented, which would benefit India and Nepal. A category of projects that deserves special mention is road connectivity between the two countries. The projects include a 144 kilometer road, a 184 kilometer road from, and 10 other roads costing around 500 crore Indian rupies. India has helped lay a cross-border petroleum pipeline to ensure a smooth supply of petroleum products to Nepal. Motihari Amalekhgunj petroleum pipeline is the first of its kind in South Asia. The 69-km pipeline will reduce the cost of transportation of fuel from India to Nepal and prove to be a game-changing project in Nepal. To build a robust rail network between the two countries, work is ongoing on at least six railway projects. These projects are: Jaynagar (India)-Janakpur (Nepal) to Bardibas in Nepal, Jogbani in India to Biratnagar in Nepal, Nautanwa in India to Bhairahawa in Nepal, Rupaidiha in India to Nepalgunj in Nepal, and New Jalpaiguri in India to Kakarbhitta in Nepal, and Kathmandu-Raxual. India has developed a waterway on the Ganges River which connects Varanasi and the seaport of Haldia, Kolkata. To provide linkages through waterways, it is working on inland waterways network to allow Nepal to use three inland waterways, thus expanding its transit options. Nepal can operate its own vessels on the river Ganga. India has given consent to access the Kolkata-Kalughat, Raxaul; Kolkata-Sahebgunj, Biratnagar and Kolkata-Varanasi-Raxaul routes for waterways. Additionally, India has built integrated check posts (ICP) in Biratnagar. The ICP boasts of some of the most modern facilities such as electronic weighbridges, fire safety, warehousing facilities including refrigerated cargo, 24x7 monitoring through CCTV and public announcement systems. The post also has the capability of handling around 500 trucks per day. Also, India handed over the Integrated Check Post (ICP) Birgunj to Nepal. India is also constructing two more such ICPs at Saunali (India)- Bhairahawa(Nepal) and Nepalgunj Road(India)-Nepalgunj(Nepal). Besides, India inaugurated two projects in Nepal which were built with India's grant assistance of Nepali Rupees 89.2 million. Of these, the Rapti Cold Storage Building in Lamahi Bazar of Lamahi was inaugurated in April 2021. The connectivity has assumed greater significance with the formation of regional and sub-regional groupings like BBIN and BIMSTEC. The physical infrastructure being built with Indian assistance will help Nepal boost her trade in the region. Source: ANI

Pakistan has threatened to stop the transit of the Afghans across the Durand Line if the Taliban government failed to accept the fence being constructed along the border. Pakistan is said to be arm-twisting the Taliban government in Kabul to accept the Durand Line, reported The Singapore Post. The Taliban government is reportedly miffed at this Pakistani blackmail and has made it clear in no uncertain terms those conditions on the Durand Line were unacceptable. The Durand Line divides the traditional Pashtun homelands in Afghanistan and Pakistan.  The border was mainly porous until recently fenced and heavily guarded due to the tribal, linguistic, social, and economic ties. Afghanistan for long has always refused to recognize the Durand Line as an international border. Durand is currently a disputed boundary for several reasons. Pashtuns on both sides believe that they have been indiscriminately divided and separated from their family and land on either side. Pakistan has viewed the Durand Line as critical to its survival as a Punjabi- dominated Sunni country. Even whispers of Great Paktunistan, a Pashtun nation encompassing Pashtun-dominated areas across the current border, raises grave suspicions in Pakistan, especially in the army. The area is home to some 35 million Afghans, 15 million of them in Afghanistan, reported The Singapore Post. As it began to lose clout over militant groups, once spawned and controlled by them, the Pakistan Army decided to fence the long and arduous border with Afghanistan, a move which triggered several run-offs between the armed forces of both countries. With the Taliban taking over Kabul, Pakistan visualized a cakewalk. But, the Taliban government refused to make any commitment on the issue despite Pakistan making it clear at the outset that it could become a stumbling block in their relationship. Once the Taliban spokesman made its opposition to the border fencing, Pakistan hit back with a crippling blockade at the Chaman border post early October. It is the second-largest border checkpoint with thousands of trucks and men travelling across the highway every day. The crossing is a major source of revenue for the cash-strapped Taliban government. With border disruptions at Torkham and withdrawal of PIA flights from Kabul, Pakistan's message to the Taliban is loud and clear--fall in line or face consequences, reported The Singapore Post. These brazenly threatening posturing from Pakistan has riled the Taliban government where there is no consensus on any remission on the issue of Durand Line or the border fencing. It is well known how fiercely the Taliban founder, Mullah Omar, had opposed any reconciliatory position on Durand Line, reported The Singapore Post. The Durand Line could thus become a point of conflict between the two allies. Source: ANI BM

India has provided transit facilities from Bangladesh to Nepal for exporting fertilizer. The facilities have been provided from Rohonpur of Chapainawabganj district through Singabad of India towards Nepal. The information was delivered through a press release of Indian High Commission in Dhaka. The press release said, the commodities are being exported from Bangladesh to Nepal under an agreement signed between the countries in 1976. The products enter in Nepal as ‘Traffic in transit’ through Indian region from other countries. India has been offering special transit facilities to Bangladesh for export and land based trade with Nepal. There are two crossing points under ‘Traffic in transit’ through railway; Rohonpur (Bangladesh)-Singabad (India) and Birol (Bangladesh)-Radhikapur (India). Every year a mentionable quantity of imported fertilizers are being sent to Nepal. Bangladesh Railway handed over its first fertilizer laden train to Indian Railway on February 3 for export to Nepal. AH