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25-482: Asian Highway 7 ( AH7 ) is a route in the Asian Highway Network . It runs from Yekaterinburg , Russia to Karachi , Pakistan. All together, it is 5,868 km (3,646 mi) long. It passes from Russia , Kazakhstan , Kyrgyzstan , Uzbekistan , Tajikistan , Afghanistan and Pakistan . The AH7 shares its route between Merke (Kazakhstan) and Kara-Balta (Kyrgyzstan) about a hundred kilometers along with

50-432: A 'Gap Year for Grown-ups' in which he described falling into a series of adventures and misadventures while armed with a back-packers' round-the-world ticket from British Airways . His second book Which Way Next came after he drove a Daewoo family hatchback saloon from Luton to South Korea with a young student companion in a hair-raising journey that included running the gauntlet across war-ravaged Afghanistan and

75-610: A linguist and travel expert from south London, after being lent a V8 Vantage sports car for the trip by Aston Martin who wanted to put the car through a live durability test and to demonstrate its prowess to China's car-buyers. From Japan, they followed the Highway's main AH1 and AH5 routes along the system's ‘central corridor’ across China and many of the former Russian states in central Asia and eastern Europe. Including considerable customs clearance problems, ferry trips and minor crash repairs,

100-687: A national organisation from a base in Milton Keynes . It was sold in 2000 to the Zoa Corporation. A keen sportsman, Meredith is a former playing member of the Saracens and Northampton rugby clubs and once played tennis at Junior Wimbledon . His daughter Clare is a barrister and son Robert was a finalist in BBC2's Design for Life competition with Philippe Starck in 2009. In recent years he has taught English-related subjects at secondary school level and as

125-835: A short degree course in Business Growth Management at Cranfield School of Management . As a journalist, he trained with the Herts Advertiser in St Albans and reached the Daily Express in Fleet Street via Thomson newspapers and the Press Association . At Thomson's Evening Echo at Hemel Hempstead his newsroom colleagues included John Clare and John Coldstream (later with the Daily Telegraph ), Tony Holden ,

150-413: A total of 140,479 kilometres (87,290 mi). Richard Meredith (author) Richard Meredith is a British writer of adventure travel novels best known for Driven Together , his account of the 2007 first car crossing of the new Asian Highway . Meredith and his co-driver Phil Colley drove from Tokyo (the Highway's farthest point East) to Istanbul (farthest West) in a journey facilitated by

175-504: Is also called RCD ( Regional Cooperation for Development ) Highway. Maintained by National Highway Athuroty Treaty on Asian Highways with routes Asian Highway Network Agreements have been signed by 32 countries to allow the highway to cross the continent and also reach to Europe. Some of the countries taking part in the highway project are India ( Look-East connectivity projects ), Sri Lanka , Pakistan , China , Iran , Japan , South Korea , Nepal and Bangladesh . Most of

200-671: Is expected to improve trade links between East Asian countries, India and Russia . To complete the route, existing roads will be upgraded and new roads constructed to link the network. US$ 25 billion has been spent or committed As of 2007, with additional US$ 18 billion needed for upgrades and improvements to 26,000 kilometres (16,000 miles) of highway. The project new highway route numbers begin with "AH", standing for "Asian Highway" , followed by one, two or three digits. Single-digit route numbers from 1 to 9 are assigned to major Asian Highway routes which cross more than one subregion. Two- and three-digit route numbers are assigned to indicate

225-851: The AH5 . In Kabul (Afghanistan) AH7 stops, but reaches to the city of Kandahar though AH1 , where the AH7 resumes its route towards Pakistan. According to the manual of the Asian Highway Project in 2002 almost the entire route is paved. Only a distance of 72 km in Kyrgyzstan and a piece of 83 kilometers in Tajikistan are unpaved. As of 2017, the entire route in Kyrgyzstan is paved. In Pakistan AH7 (N25 - Pakistan Road Networks) enters at Chaman. It passes through Qila Abdullah, Quetta, Mastung, Kalat, Khuzdar, Uthal, Goth Hussain and Hub, ending at Karachi. In Pakistan N25

250-584: The English Civil War . His great uncle was Air Marshal Sir Brian Reynolds (1902–1965), the former CinC of Coastal Command, while Lt Thomas E.S. Reynolds, another uncle, won the Military Cross at Ypres in 1918. The painter Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792) was believed to be a distant relative. He was educated at Great Ballard School near Chichester and Allhallows (now closed) outside Lyme Regis which he left before his 16th birthday. In 1988 he took

275-679: The Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital in the UK, the SOS Children's Villages organisation in Nepal which he re-visited on the 10th anniversary in 2013, and UNICEF programmes to reduce the number of deaths of young people on the roads of China. Meredith was born in Barnet , Hertfordshire (now north London) to a family whose name of Reynolds on his maternal side can trace their ancestry to before

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300-785: The Khyber Pass . A member of the Society of Authors and a card-carrying journalist, Meredith has also published an anthology of his experiences as a writer titled Views From the Front Line and a number of local history publications under a pen name including Cromwell's Garrison Town . and a series of articles titled Bond in Bucks . A non-profit imprint to encourage local authors was launched in 2016. By linking his various activities to fund-raising for charity and major events, he has helped to generate more than £535,000 in recent years for causes including

325-626: The 60th session of the ESCAP Commission at Shanghai, China , in April 2004, the IGA treaty was signed by 23 countries. By 2013, 29 countries had ratified the agreement. In 2007, British drivers Richard Meredith and Phil Colley completed the first full East to West journey of the entire highway in an Aston Martin Vantage which was later sold to raise money for UNICEF . The drive was a marketing stunt promoted by

350-456: The Asian Highway project are the planners within the national land transport department of the participating countries [since] it assists them in planning the most cost-effective and efficient routes to promote domestic and international trade. Non-coastal areas, which are often negligible, are the other beneficiaries." However, in the mid-2000s some transportation experts were skeptical about

375-510: The Asian countries under one crown but the problem with this project is political disputes between some countries, notably Pakistan and Myanmar , which is delaying the project." Route AH1 is proposed to extend from Tokyo to the border with Bulgaria ( EU ) west of Istanbul and Edirne , passing through both Koreas , China and other countries in Southeast, Central and South Asia . The corridor

400-694: The Royal biographer and Stephen Pile , the TV critic and author; while at the Express , his era included the brief editorship of former ITN newscaster Sir Alastair Burnet , Chapman Pincher , the Defence Correspondent, and Jean Rook , Women's Editor. His time there added to the family's long association with Express and Standard newspapers. His grandfather Harry was a printer with the Evening Standard , his mother

425-632: The United Nations, whose Commission in Bangkok had finally secured a pan-Asia agreement on the new road network in 2005 after nearly 50 years of negotiations. Intended as a major benefit for international trade and towards alleviating poverty among Asia's poorer nations, the system is one of the most important developments in global transportation for centuries and resurrects many of the ancient Silk Road trading routes between Asia and Europe. Meredith, from Newport Pagnell , Buckinghamshire, recruited Colley,

450-414: The car manufacturer. The advanced highway network would provide for greater trade and social interactions between Asian countries, including personal contacts, project capitalizations, connections of major container terminals with transportation points, and promotion of tourism via the new roadways. Infrastructure consultant Om Prakash noted that, "It's an excellent step taken by ESCAP to gather all

475-634: The color, shape and size of the sign being completely flexible. Most examples feature a blue rectangular shield with a white inscription (similar to German Autobahn signage) with further examples of white on green and black on white rectangular shields. These routes were set up by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations as part of an extension to the Asian Highway Network, known as the ASEAN Highway Network. The planned network runs

500-603: The endorsement of ALTID in 1992. The Intergovernmental Agreement on the Asian Highway Network (IGA) was adopted on February 28,1997 by the Intergovernmental Meeting ;; 37000 kilometers, and was adopted on November 18, 2003, by the Intergovernmental Meeting; the IGA includes Annex I, which identifies 55 AH routes among 32 member countries totalling approximately 140,000 km (87,500 miles), and Annex II "Classification and Design Standards". During

525-669: The funding comes from the larger, more advanced Asian nations such as China , South Korea and Singapore as well as international agencies such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). The project aims to make maximum use of the continent's existing highways to avoid the construction of newer ones, except in cases where missing routes necessitate their construction. Project Monitor , an Asian infrastructure news website, has commented that "early beneficiaries of

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550-797: The journey of approx. 10,000 miles from Tokyo to Istanbul and then onto London, took 49 days. It was independently logged and monitored throughout and ended with a reception and press conference hosted by Aston Martin's then-CEO Dr Ulrich Bez at the Hilton Hotel in Park Lane . China's President Xi Jinping has committed $ 1 trillion (£750bn) to what he calls the Belt and Road initiative. A former national newspaper journalist and business magazine publisher, Meredith turned to adventure travel writing after selling his Holcot Press business in 2000. He published his first novel One Way or Another in 2002 after what he called

575-519: The routes within subregions, including those connecting to neighbouring subregions, and self-contained highway routes within the participating countries. Route numbers are printed in the Latin script and Hindu-Arabic numerals and may simply be added to existing signage, like the E-road network . The actual design of the signs has not been standardized, only that the letters and digits are in white or black, but

600-575: The viability of the project given the economic and political climate in both South and Southeast Asia. The AH project was initiated by the United Nations in 1959 with the aim of promoting the development of international road transport in the region. During the first phase of the project (1960–1970) considerable progress was achieved, however, progress slowed down when financial assistance was suspended in 1975. ESCAP has conducted several projects in cooperation with AH member countries step by step after

625-769: Was billeted in World War II with the family of Reg Wootton, the Express's Sporting Sam cartoonist, and his cousin Frances worked in the commercial department. In 1975, in partnership with friends from the Express and elsewhere, he launched the Northants Post weekly newspaper in Northampton (closed Dec. 2016) and later sold his shares to start the Holcot Press Group, a publisher of business magazines and directories which grew into

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