Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Shri Kiren Rijiju has said that the Government will make all out efforts to boost land border trade with neighbouring countries. Addressing the 4th Foundation Day of the Land Ports Authority of India (LPAI) here today, he said geographically land border trade is vital to India’s development. Shri Rijiju said all developed countries, even the nations small in size and borders, have huge border trade volumes with neighbouring countries. He said intra-regional trade and prosperity are directly linked. Shri Rijiju said there is a need to explore new trade routes to ensure more productive contacts with our neighbours especially in the North East where all the States share their borders with neighbouring countries. Realising this, the Government has launched the ambitions Bharat Mala project under which highways will be built and road infrastructure created all along India’s borders including the coastal boundary.
Shri Rijiju said, unlike the airports and sea ports, developing land ports has different challenges as it is dependent on the creation of infrastructure and connectivity on both sides of the international borders. Presiding over the function, Shri Anup Kumar Srivastava, Secretary, Department of Border Management, said the Integrated Check Posts being developed by the LPAI have a potential to be a game changer. In his welcome address Shri Y.S. Shahrawat, Chairman, LPAI, said intra-regional trade in South Asia is a meagre 5%, only higher than sub-Saharan Africa. He said the Authority will soon commission ICPs at Raxaul on Nepal border and Moreh on Myanmar border. Former Foreign Secretary Shri Shyam Saran, in his Foundation Day Lecture, said land borders should not be seen as dangerous places and the other side seen as hostile to our interests, instead borders should be seen as connectors.
On the occasion Shri Rijiju launched the logo and the website of LPAI.
The Land Ports Authority of India (LPAI) came into being on March 1, 2012. LPAI was established under Land Ports Authority of India Act, 2010 as a statutory body to function as a body corporate under the administrative control of the Department of Border Management, Ministry of Home Affairs. Vested with the powers on the lines of similar bodies like Airports Authority of India, the LPAI is mandated to provide better administration and cohesive management at border crossings on India’s land borders. The Land Ports Authority of India Rules, 2011 was published on 20.07.2011. LPAI is mandated inter alia to plan, develop, construct, manage and maintain Integrated Check Posts (ICPs), regulate functions of various agencies working at such Check Posts, coordinate with various concerned Ministries, Departments of the Government of India or other agencies for regulating the entry and exit of passengers and goods and establish necessary service facilities. LPAI brings together various agencies responsible for coordination of various Government functions including those of Security, Immigration, Customs, Plant & Animal Quarantine etc., as also for the provision of support facilities such as warehousing, parking, banking, foreign exchange bureau among others at ICPs along India’s vast land borders.