Pakistan-India Trade:

Additional Trade Challenges: Transport, Transit, and Non-Tariff Barriers
the absence of road transport agreements that would permit the seamless
movement of trucks. This not only adds to time and cost, but also leads
to higher incidences of damages and pilferage. There are also restrictions
on the sizes of trucks, which prevents containerized trucks from carrying
cargo across the border for unloading. This has posed a major limitation
to the cost-efficient movement of goods across borders.
Fortunately, a number of measures have been instituted in recent
years to address the above problems. The Indian government initiated
the setting up of 13 Integrated Check Posts (ICPs) at identified
entry points on its international land borders. The ICPs at Attari/
Wagah became operational in April 2012. ICPs provide a dedicated
passenger and cargo terminal with adequate customs and immigration
counters, X-ray scanners, passenger amenities, and other related
facilities (like service and fuel stations) in a single modern complex
equipped with state-of-the-art resources including facilities for electronic
data interchange.
In line with the joint statement submitted by the two countries in
November 2011, India’s completion of ICPs was to be accompanied
by Pakistan abandoning a positive list and moving to a negative list for
road-based trade. However, as of May 2012, no announcement had been
made by Pakistan to do so. Another pending task for the two governments
is to amend road trade protocol to allow through-movement of
containerized trucks across the two borders.
Rail Transport
The rail route has been the dominant surface-transport mode for India-
Pakistan trade. However, even this mode has been limited in its reach. In
both countries, goods move by train only over a small distance of 30 kilometers
between Amritsar and Lahore. For the remaining connections
between origin and destination, goods are transhipped onto trucks and
then moved. Thus, typically, a consignment originating in Delhi would
be moved by road to Amritsar and then transhipped to rail for onward
movement to Lahore through the border at Attari. This adds considerably
to the time and cost of transporting goods.
With the setting up of the ICP at Attari/Wagah, infrastructure has
improved considerably, but several barriers remain. A single rail route
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