India, Myanmar and Thailand Friendship Motor Car Rally 2016 flagged off

A Friendship Motor Car Rally from India Gate lawns in Delhi to Bangkok was flagged off yesterday by the minister of State for Road Transport and Highways, Shipping and Chemical Fertilizers, Mansukh Lal Mandaviya. Chalit Manityakul, ambassador of Thailand, was also present on the occasion.

The objective of the rally is to improve connectivity by road in the South-East Asian region and to sensitise the stakeholders of the India Myanmar and Thailand (IMT) Motor Vehicle Agreement as to the potential benefits of such a regulatory regime. With the opening of Trilateral Highway, travel from New Delhi to Bangkok by road would become a reality. 

Addressing the gathering, Mandaviya said that this rally will also play an important role in developing the economic, transport and cultural relations between the three countries. He said that this rally will give a boost to prime minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Act East Policy’. A commemorative stamp for IMT Rally, 2016 was also released on the occasion. 

The rally caravan will cover a distance of 5,722km along the IMT Trilateral Highway with about 80 participants from all the three countries, in 20 Indian-made vehicles on a journey from Delhi to Bangkok over 19 days. Ceremonial flag-off will also be held in other cities and state capitals en route like Sarnath, Bodhgaya, Patna, Siliguri, Guwahati, Shillong, Kohima and Imphal and Began and Yangoon in Myanmar and Bangkok in Thailand. 

The rally will conclude in Bangkok on December 2, 2016 and will help further cement cultural and economic ties among the three nations and highlight the potential benefits of connectivity and integration in the region. 

A trial run of passenger vehicles on the IMT Trilateral Highway up to Naypitaw in Myanmar was carried out during November 9-14, 2015 in which Indian vehicles travelled to Myanmar on Imphal-Mandalay-Bagan-Naypitaw route and back and Myanmar vehicles joined the Indian vehicles on the return journey from Naypitaw to Imphal and returned to Myanmar.