JOIN USThe opening of a shipping line between Kolkata port and the Sittwe port in Myanmar is an important event which will boost trade between India and Myanmar and, more importantly, promote economic development of India’s North-East. It will provide a short and convenient route for transportation of goods from the east coast to the landlocked North-Eastern states. India helped to develop the port on the western Rakhine coast of Myanmar. The port is connected through a 158-km river channel along the Kaladan river and then a 109-km highway to Zorinpur on the India-Myanmar border in Mizoram. The entire North-East will be linked to the border town with a road network. The project is known as the Kaladan Multi-Modal Tranship Transport Project (KMMTTP). Work on this project started in 2008 and after much delay, mainly caused by unstable political conditions in Myanmar, it is almost complete now.
When it is fully operational, the KMMTTP will provide another route to connect the eastern coast of India to the North-East through the Sittwe port. It will provide better connectivity for trade and commerce than the present route through Kolkata and Siliguri. It will save time and will be much cheaper. At present, and in the immediate future, the trade through the Sittwe post will mostly consist of rice, timber, seafood, petroleum products, garments, cement and steel. But as the North-Eastern states’ economies improve, the trade will have a different composition and is expected to grow by many times. Myanmar also will benefit from the linkages. People living on the remote border regions of the country are constrained by lack of access to facilities in many areas. Health and education in these areas will get a major boost.
Bangladesh will also be part of the increased connectivity network. The recent opening of a bridge on the Feni river has connected Agartala in Tripura to the Chittagong port in Bangladesh, reducing the distance between the two to 450 km from the 1,600 km through the Siliguri corridor. Bhutan and Nepal have also signed MoUs with Bangladesh to boost trade and commerce through the North-Eastern region of India using inland water routes. According to a World Bank estimate, better transport connectivity between India and Bangladesh can increase national income by 17% in Bangladesh and 8% in India. The KMMTTP also has the potential to improve trade and economic linkages between India’s North-East and the South-East Asian countries. Efforts to develop road infrastructure between India and South-East Asia have not been successful and that has constrained the working of the ‘Act East’ policy. Sea routes may offer a new opportunity.