Mahmood Hassan

The improvement of railway connectivity from India to Myanmar and access to the Sittwe Port will open up avenues for trade, commerce, employment, economic growth, and tourism for North East India. The landlocked region will have access to the sea through Sittwe port.

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurating the Bairabi-Sairang railway line, Mizoram has been added to the country's railway map. This line will be extended to the Indo-Myanmar border to give access to the Kadalan Multi-Model Transit Project (KMTTP) at Sittwe, constructed by India in Myanmar, so as to give the landlocked country access to Indian ports by sea. This is India’s largest development initiative in Myanmar. A 225 km railway line from Sairang to Zorinpui at the Indo-Myanmar border is also part of the plans. This would give railway access to Paletwa in Myanmar, KMTTP, and Sittwe.

The project, which took off in 2008 under New Delhi's Look East Policy (now Act East Policy), to develop trade between Myanmar and South East Asian nations, will also counter China’s maritime silk route initiative. It will also provide an alternative connectivity of Mizoram with Haldia/Kolkata/or any Indian Port through the Kaladan River in Myanmar. The North East, being a landlocked region, will provide access to the international seas. This project will become the cornerstone of Indo-Myanmar economic, commercial, and strategic ties. It will also help India in counterbalancing China’s growing influence in the region.

The map of connectivity from north east to Myanmar

The $484 million port was developed with the assistance of the Government of India as part of the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Project (KMTTP). One of the geographical advantages for North East India is that it will link the East Coast of India with North Eastern states, and the transportation costs of goods between Kolkata and Agartala and Aizawl will decrease by 50 percent. When the port becomes fully operational, it will provide an alternate route for the region to access international sea routes via the port. Thus, it would ease the pressure on the Chicken Neck corridor. The distance of the shipping route in the Bay of Bengal from Sittwe to Kolkata port is 539 km.

The port has a maximum capacity of 20,000 DWT, which will make Sittwe a maritime hub of Myanmar and open unprecedented economic growth in the region as part of the Act East policy of the government. The port will be developed as a Special Economic Zone by India.ASEAN countries will participate in the Sittwe Economic Zone (SEZ). The SEZ is planned at Ponnagyun township on 1000 acres of land. It will boost tourism, agriculture, and manufacturing along the Kaladan River. The Chinese have already set up an Economic Zone at Kyaukphu in Myanmar.

The KMTTP comprises four important sections from India to the Sittwe port via maritime shipping, from Sittwe to Paletwa via the Kaladan River, from Paletwa to the Indo-Myanmar border via road, and from the border to our National Highway No. 54 via road that will enter Assam and reach Dabaka in Assam, which is a part of the East-West Corridor connecting NE India with the rest of India. Significantly, this will form a part of the Multilateral Asian Highway connecting all countries of South East Asia. In this network, 69 bridges have been constructed in the region, creating better communication facilities for Myanmarese citizens and those travelling from North East India for trading purposes.

The Bairabi-Sairang railway line bridge

The extension of the India-Myanmar road to the Multilateral Highway connects Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Sittwe port will be connected by Inland Water Transport along the Kaladan river up to Paletwa inland water terminal in Chin state via Kaladan covering 158 km.The land route is connected from Paletwa (IWT) to Zochawchhuah (India) and then from Zochawchhuah to Zorinpui and then to Aizawl.

The 1600 km Kolkata to Agartala road takes more than four days to cover, but the new route through Sittwe-Chittagong-Saboom (Mizoram) to Agartala take two days.   

The Sittwe port falls in Rakhine state of Myanmar, formerly called Arakan. This region was once a part of the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal Empire and later of the Mrauk kingdom. Hence, North East India has close socio-cultural ties with Myanmar. During the Burmese invasions in the early 19th century, the torture and atrocities committed by the Burmese army that came to be called “Maanor din” were a tragic period of Assamese history. They imprisoned many Assamese families and carried them to Myanmar. These Assamese communities are still settled in the Rakhine region of the country. In 1826, under the Treaty of Yandabu, Burma ceded Arakan to British India.

The opening of the Sittwe post is likely to enhance bilateral and regional trade between India and Myanmar. This port will open up the possibilities for the entire Northeast India to transport its goods to the rest of India as well as the Southeast Asian countries at cheaper rate. Earlier, the shipping goods had to be carried up to Kolkata port before being transported to the rest of Europe or South East Asia.

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Recently, first cargo vessel, MV ITT Lion reached Kolkata Port, which was jointly received by Union Minister of Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal and Myanmar’s Deputy Prime Minister Admiral Tin Aung San, and inaugurated the port in Myanmar that came to be known as the “Chabahar of the East”.