The Rally’s schedule was planned to coincide with the third ASEAN-India summit.
Besides being a sports event, it explored road links between India and ASEAN,
attracted commercial interest in the route infrastructure and promoted tourism and
other developments in northeast India. The Rally had a ceremonial flag-off in
Vientiane in November 2004 by the honourable prime minister of India and other
heads of state of the ASEAN countries who were there for the ASEAN-India summit
meeting.
The event was non-competitive. It was jointly organised by the Indian Ministry of
External Affairs and the Confederation of Indian Industry with the cooperation of
ASEAN nations and the Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India. Participants who
crossed the finish line were awarded with mementos.
As this was the first time the Rally was run, it was more of a "parade", with advance
pilots and marshals regulating the pace and stops. It ran in convoy formation as
opposed to a typical rally competition with special stages.
The Rally was preceded by several business seminars, cultural and tourism-oriented
activities and press conferences. The intention was to boost business contacts and
information exchange among the trade communities and the media of the
participating countries. These primarily focussed on developing sectoral synergies
between India and each individual ASEAN country that the Rally would go through.