First India-ASEAN car rally begins amid tough challenges
First India-ASEAN car rally begins amid tough challenges
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Twelve Indonesian drivers are among 250 racers who will dodge
armed separatists, heroin traffickers, diseases and mosquitoes in
the first India-ASEAN car rally, which began on Monday in
Guwahati, India.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh waved the starting flag
for the race on Monday in the presence of local officials and
senior ASEAN representatives, including secretary-general Ong
Keng Yong, the Indian Embassy in Jakarta reported.
The 8,000-kilometer rally will pass through Myanmar, Laos,
Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore before
culminating in Batam, Indonesia, on Dec. 11.
It will receive another ceremonial start in Vientiane, Laos,
on Nov. 30 by ASEAN leaders gathering there for the ASEAN-India
summit.
The rally was aimed at enhancing trade, investment, tourism,
and people-to-people links between India and ASEAN, demonstrating
India-ASEAN proximity and road connectivity, and promoting
infrastructure development, especially in road transport, the
embassy said.
Parallel business and cultural events would be held in each
participating country throughout the 20-day rally.
In Guwahati, Agence France-Presse reported that
Indian officials had warned drivers to use "maximum discretion"
to dodge armed rebels, heroin traffickers, HIV-AIDS infection and
malarial mosquitoes.
"The rally route cuts through high-risk HIV zones and you all
must show maximum discretion," a health official told the
drivers, who were also given a course of anti-malarial medicine.
India's northeast is home to about 30 separatist outfits
seeking secession, greater autonomy or independence. They say New
Delhi exploits the region which is rich in oil, tea and timber.
Violence in the area has claimed tens of thousands of lives
since India's independence from the British in 1947.
Two ambulances carrying a team of cardiologists, trauma injury
specialists, general physicians and an anesthetist will also
trail the drivers over the tough mostly mountain terrain.
Most of the jeeps and four-wheel-drive vehicles being used in
the rally have been made by private Indian automakers Tata Motors
and Mahindra and Mahindra.
Brunei is the only country that has sent its own cars.
Reuters reported soldiers were patrolling a 500-km stretch of
the rally road.
Air force helicopters flew over the thickly forested route
looking for armed gangs who could launch attacks on the
participants and disrupt the rally.