Fresh from the successful opening of the Wagah-Attari border trading post, India said it was keen to throw open the Khokhrapar-Munabao border point as well.
Addressing a group of Pakistani parliamentarians, Indian Commerce Minister Anand Sharma said that India was also willing to start talks with Pakistan to open the Husseiniwala-Sialkot border point.
The Attari-Wagah border post was recently opened for traffic, though he said, some infrastructures was still needed to be put in place. India and Pakistan have started talks on exporting electricity to Pakistan, the minister said. The first step, Sharma said, would be grid connectivity with Pakistan. This has been done between India and Bangladesh in the past couple of years, and the Indian concept could be replicated on the Indo-Pak border. India, the minister said, was willing to sell 500MW of electricity as the first step. Arvind Mehta, Joint Secretary in the Commerce Ministry, said the two sides in their recent meetings were looking to fast-track the process. Sharma said India was negotiating to sell petroleum products to Pakistan as well. Pakistan buys these products from third countries, and Sharma said it would be cheaper to source them from India.
Pakistani MPs asked for greater access to tourists from either side. There was also a demand for Indian healthcare facilities to set up institutions in Pakistan. India, for its part, would like Pakistan to allow Indian goods to transit through its territory to Afghanistan. On the Munabao border point, sources said a recent meeting of the experts group in July discussed the possibility of a dedicated rail route on the Rajasthan-Sindh border. Given that Barmer in Rajasthan is now a source of oil, India could even export petrochemical products from there to Pakistan.
The Khokhrapar-Munabao route has been a consistent demand from the Indian side, because New Delhi believes it offers huge opportunities for local businessmen in Gujarat and Rajasthan as part of the old Kutch-Sindh trading practices.
India looking at opening two border points with Pakistan
