India must look beyond Bangladesh. Kolkata-Sittwe-Aizawl corridor is key to Northeast

The Print

26-05-2025

If fully operationalised, ideally with a rail link to Sittwe Port, it could offer a more resilient corridor for movement of goods to the Northeast, while also opening up longer-term trade possibilities with Southeast Asia.
The political turmoil in Bangladesh has made it more urgent for India to complete the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project, or KMTTP, which links Mizoram to Kolkata via Sittwe port in Myanmar.
Why Kaladan project matters more now
India's role as the pivot in South Asia extends beyond dominant power to that of a regional integrator. Intra-regional development is primarily a function of mutual friendship, interdependent trade, economic ties, and joint ventures. The goal may be to advance national interest, but the net effect is regional prosperity, which acts as a force multiplier for India's own development. South and Southeast Asian countries, joined together through bilateral and multilateral frameworks like the BBIN and BIMSTEC, have therefore started looking beyond the region—in line with India's Act East Policy.
Apart from economic commitments, physical connectivity—especially in infrastructure and energy—has assumed unparalleled significance.
Railways, highways, civil aviation, and inland waterways are now crossing borders for mutual growth and development. The East South Asia region is on the cusp of unprecedented intra-regional physical connectivity. It is the only way forward for the 21st century. For instance, Nepal and Bhutan, both landlocked nations, have gained access to Indian markets and ports. Newer cross-border rail links have been operationalised between India and Bangladesh, and several projects to connect Bhutan and Myanmar were put in place during the last 10 years. India-Bangladesh bilateral relations, in particular, had never been this strong and comprehensive—until last year.
On 5 August 2024, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned following a massive uprising. An interim government headed by Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus has since been formed.
This civil strife in Bangladesh has come with ripple effects. It's brought with it a certain straining of relations, causing collateral damage to trade and commerce. There have also been instances of cross border movements and joint project developments coming to halt. Existing trade corridors have been impacted and ongoing rail/road projects to provide shorter transit corridors across Bangladesh to and from India's Northeastern states are on hold.
It's time now to look at alternative possibilities for northeastern states in addition to the Siliguri corridor. The Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project requires revisiting and a fresh reassessment.
Growing tension with Dhaka
During his visit to China in late March, Bangladesh's Chief Adviser Mohammad Yunus made remarks that were considered provocative, to say the least.
'The seven states of India, the eastern part of India, called seven sisters… they are landlocked country, landlocked region of India. They have no way to reach out to the ocean,' he said. 'We are the only guardian of the ocean for all this region.'
Shortly thereafter, Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the BIMSTEC conference in Thailand. He met Yunus on the sidelines and reiterated his support for a democratic, progressive, and inclusive Bangladesh, according to a Ministry of External Affairs release. He also underlined India's desire to forge a constructive relationship with Bangladesh. More importantly, the PM urged that any rhetoric that vitiates the environment is best avoided.
But in another surprising development, Yunus, during a meeting with Nepal's Deputy Speaker in Dhaka earlier this month, said that 'a unified economic plan among Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and the seven northeastern states of India is essential.'
This reiteration of his earlier reference to India's northeastern states cannot be ignored as mere rhetoric. Although no official reaction has yet come, it is being viewed as not only undiplomatic but bordering on hostility.
These developments also necessitate a fresh look at the existing infrastructure projects between India and Bangladesh, and a renewed focus on alternatives to strengthen connectivity with the Northeast. The KMTT project also assumes greater importance.
Rethinking rail routes to the Northeast
India has been playing a pivotal role in developing cross-border rail connectivity with its neighbours. With Nepal, two rail links—Raxaul-Birganj and Jayanagar-Bijalpura—are fully operational, and a third, Jogban-Biratnagar, is partially completed. Regular freight and passenger train services are running on these routes. Several surveys, including the Birganj-Kathmandu line, are in progress.
With Bhutan, surveys for a rail line connecting Gelephu in Bhutan with Kokrajhar in India have been completed, along with the Hashimara-Phuentsholing rail link. With Bangladesh, five cross-border rail interchange points are operational: Gede-Darshana, Petrapole-Benapole, Singhabad-Rohanpur, Radhikapur-Birol, and Haldibari-Chilahati. The work on a sixth link, between Agartala and Akhaura, has also been completed. Three passenger-carrying trains—the Bandhan Express, Maitree Express, and Mitali Express—run between India and Bangladesh. However, all three passenger services have remained suspended since the civic unrest broke out last August. Only a very limited exchange of freight trains continues.
One of the most significant transport infrastructure development stories in East South Asia over the last ten years has been the unprecedented growth of the rail network and connectivity between India and Bangladesh, largely attributable to Indian financing and project management. Both countries were also looking toward developing a shorter corridor between Kolkata and Agartala in the near future. As things stand, the possibility of such a bilateral arrangement is uncertain. Even Agartala's access to Chittagong Port, located about 200 km away, may no longer be an option.
In this scenario, another possible alternative to strengthen connectivity with the Northeastern states could be a multi-modal transport corridor via Myanmar.
Under India's Act East Policy, Myanmar has assumed a crucial role. The India-Myanmar-Thailand Expressway is key to operationalising India's connectivity with Southeast Asia. Indian Railways is also working on sanctioned projects for the Imphal-Tamu and Tamu-Kalay lines. These missing rail links require focused attention and financial resources to enable construction and operationalisation of Myanmar's cross-border links with India on its east and Thailand on its west.
The case for Kolkata-Sittwe-Aizawl
The other critical multi-modal connectivity project between India's eastern ports and its northeastern states is the KMTTP. This India-assisted project, envisaged many decades ago, is yet to become fully operational, with its progress being impacted by various factors, including civil unrest. Upon completion, the corridor will offer a shorter transit route for goods from Kolkata and other eastern ports to the northeastern states of Mizoram, Tripura, and Manipur. It will also serve as an alternative to the congested Siliguri corridor.
On 9 May 2023, the Indian Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways received the first Indian cargo ship at Sittwe Port in Myanmar—a major milestone in the KMTTP's operationalisation.
Conceptualised as an alternative route to connect Mizoram, Manipur, and Tripura, the project creates a physical link between Aizawl and Kolkata. A highway connects Aizawl to Paletwa in Myanmar, from where cargo is transported via inland waterway along the Kaladan River to Sittwe Port. The sea route from Sittwe to Haldia/Kolkata is functional as of now.
Before examining the specifics of KMTTP, it's worth looking at similar developments elsewhere for alternative transport corridors—rail, road, and multi-modal. With global economic and industrial growth, and rising mobility of goods and people, traditional transport routes are getting increasingly congested, be it the Suez and Panama Canals, the Malacca Strait, or the Central Asia-Europe corridors through the Caspian and Black Seas. Alternatives are being sought, discussed, and operationalised. The India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) and the Ben Gurion Canal as alternatives to the Suez, land bridging in Mexico as an alternative to the Panama Canal, and China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) are just a few examples.
As a first, for its northeastern states, India will have to plan for additional rail lines and additional expressways to augment the existing capacity of the Siliguri corridor. This is already being considered. However, other options like a transit rail corridor between Kolkata-Dhaka-Agartala and the Kolkata-Sittwe-Aizawl multi-modal corridors would eventually be required to meet the demands of future economic growth.
With the prevailing geopolitical uncertainties impacting prospects for bilateral rail transit corridors through Bangladesh, the KMTTP requires careful analysis. Current and future freight traffic between India's eastern ports and the southern northeastern states must be kept in view.
Progress on the Kaladan corridor
For KMTTP, a feasibility study was conducted by RITES India Ltd way back in 2003. The framework agreement was signed between India and Myanmar in 2008. Two decades later, Sittwe Port has been developed as a commercial port with a grant-in-aid of approximately US$500 million. For the port and inland water transport (IWT) development, the Inland Waterways Authority of India was appointed as the Project Development Consultant. Another MoU was signed between the two countries in 2018 to operationalise the Sittwe Port and Paletwa IWT terminals.
From Sittwe Port, the IWT route runs along the Kaladan River for 158 km to the Paletwa terminal. For this stretch, cargo is to be moved by 6 IWT vessels provided by India. From Paletwa, cargo is expected to move by road transport for about 110 km to Zorinpui on the India-Myanmar border. Work on this road connection has not yet been completed. From Zorinpui to Aizawl, roadway is already available for bringing cargo to the Mizoram capital. Onwards, the Indian railway and highway network connects all major towns in the northeastern states.
While the Indian railway network is fast expanding in the Northeast and the capitals of Assam, Arunachal, Tripura, and Mizoram have been connected by rail, work on connecting the capitals of Nagaland, Manipur, and Meghalaya is in progress. Recently, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved a four-lane high-speed road corridor between Shillong and Silchar at a cost of Rs 22,864 crore. This 166-km highway is expected to further reduce travel time between Guwahati and Silchar/Aizawl/Agartala/Imphal.
Normally, seamless single-mode connectivity—without transhipment or multiple handlings—is considered faster and more economical. This does not, however, undermine the inherent advantages of other modes in terms of hauling capacity, bulk movement, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Rail emits only 20 per cent of truck GHGs and is four times more cost-effective for long-haul transport. A bulk carrier on inland waterways emits just 10 per cent of the GHG emissions of a truck. This, however, should be viewed in the perspective of the freight traffic required to be moved on a route/corridor.
The relevance of KMTTP must also be understood by its potential to carry freight destined for the southern northeastern states, with shorter transit time and more efficient cargo handling. Cargo moved on KMTTP covers about 917 km, as compared to the approximately 1,500 km long route by rail from Kolkata to Aizawl. This includes 539 km from Haldia Port to Sittwe Port, 158 km from Sittwe to Paletwa by Kaladan river, 110 km from Paletwa to the Indo-Myanmar border at Zorinpui, and 110 km from the Indo-Myanmar border to Aizawl.
Obviously, on completion of the last stretch of road, the cargo would move on this alternate corridor from eastern Indian ports to its northeastern states. It will also provide shorter connectivity between India and Southeast Asia via Myanmar.
Also Read: Myanmar is the missing link in India's Act East policy. Delhi must boost rail-road network
The missing link
The desired benefits of this corridor, however, would only accrue when the highway from India gets connected to Sittwe Port or the rail link gets extended from Aizawl to Sittwe. Limited movement of cargo may continue on the multi-modal corridor, but bulk movement for northeast India would only be feasible through train loads from Sittwe Port.
At present, the northeastern states of Tripura, Mizoram, and Manipur (freight terminals south of Lumding) receive, on average, two to three train loads—about 5,000 metric tons—of essential commodities daily for various goods sheds. Rerouting such volumes on KMTTP would require a large fleet of IWT vessels and hundreds of trucks to carry these goods from Sittwe to Aizawl and other freight terminals. Transhipment of such quantities and multiple handlings would also increase logistics costs and delays.
Therefore, India and Myanmar should make an effort to develop a rail link connecting the Aizawl rail terminal to Sittwe Port—covering about 375 km (110 km in India and 275 km in Myanmar)—to obtain the full benefits of this alternate transport corridor. It would be quite like the Mumbai (India)–Chabahar (Iran)–Zaranj (Afghanistan) corridor. In that case, Mumbai to Chabahar is by sea, and a railway line is being planned from Chabahar to Zaranj by Iranian Railways.
Till then, the KMTTP needs to be operationalised at the earliest, and rail connectivity to Sittwe Port must become part of what could eventually be called a future India-Myanmar Economic Corridor. The economic and strategic gains to India would include a shorter transit route to the Northeast, while Myanmar would benefit from the revenue generated through cargo transit and handling on its network.
Despite the advantages of geo-economics over geopolitics, road bumps in bilateral relations should be transitory in today's interdependent world. To this end, one can continue to have confidence in KMTTP as an integrator of South Asian economies and a mutually beneficial long-term initiative.
Mohammad Jamshed is a Distinguished Fellow at CRF and former member of Traffic Railway Board. Views are personal.
(Edited by Asavari Singh)