Latest news with #KMMTTP
India Today
20-05-2025
- Business
- India Today
How India will bypass Bangladesh roads and roadblocks
New Delhi seems to be hitting back at Dhaka, after Bangladesh's interim government chief, Muhammad Yunus, brought up India's "landlocked" north-east during his visit to China. While India has restricted some Bangladeshi exports into India through land routes, it is also working to revive an alternative multi-modal corridor to connect the Seven Sisters, bypassing the fall of the Sheikh Hasina regime in August 2024, India has faced a not-so-friendly Bangladesh. That's because forces that thought India helped the Hasina regime filled the power including Muhammad Yunus, have made remarks inimical to the long-standing ties between the two countries, and the remarks on the northeast states were the latest in that series. The interim government hasn't acted against the extremist anti-India voices that have gained mainstream space since Hasina's departure. India's move to restrict the import of Bangladeshi goods, including its prized garments, comes after New Delhi in April scrapped a transshipment agreement that had allowed Bangladeshi goods to pass through India for export to third a result, as many as 36 trucks loaded with garments worth Rs 5.5 crore have been left stranded at the Benapole border, reported the Dhaka India has accelerated work on the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project (KMMTTP), aimed at connecting Kolkata to Mizoram via Myanmar's Sittwe Port. The project, which significantly shortens the distance between Kolkata and the Northeast states, is partially complete, with the Indian government now stepping up efforts to finish the remaining segments. advertisementINDIA RESTRICTS TRADE WITH BANGLADESHIn April, India terminated a 2020 transshipment agreement that allowed Bangladeshi exports, particularly garments, to be routed through Indian territory to third last week, also imposed restrictions on Bangladeshi goods via land ports. This is likely to impact goods worth $770 million, about 42% of total bilateral imports, according to a Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI), reported news agency these measures are yielding results, India is also focusing on long-term strategies to bypass Bangladesh and directly connecting its northeastern states with the rest of the country, as Dhaka appears to be visibly tilting towards an expansionist now, the narrow Siliguri Corridor, referred to as the Chicken's Neck, is the only land route connecting the Northeast of India to the rest of the country. All other land routes pass via has long been wary of China's growing influence in South Asia, including in Bangladesh, where Beijing is expanding its footprint through infrastructure projects under the "debt-trapping" Belt and Road SIDE OF KALADAN PROJECT COMPLETE: MIZORAM GUV VK SINGHAt the heart of India's strategy to bypass Bangladesh is the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project (KMMTTP), a $500-million initiative to connect Kolkata to Mizoram via April 25, Mizoram Governor General VK Singh announced that construction of the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project had been completed on the Indian side, reported The Times of greenfield Shillong–Silchar high-speed corridor, approved by the Union Cabinet last week, is poised to enhance the KMMTTP by extending the route from Mizoram's Aizawl into other parts of the Northeast, including central Assam and Shillong in Meghalya."It [Shillong–Silchar high-speed corridor] will become a major connectivity link for the entire Northeast and an important milestone for developing the region as a gateway for India's Act East Policy," an official of the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL), told The Indian Express NHIDCL is the implementing body of the Kaladan project. The current road route between Silchar and Shillong is 210 km and takes over 8 hours; the new high-speed highway will reduce the distance by 31 km and cut travel time by over 3 hours. (Image: Google Maps) "With the help of the Kaladan project, cargo will reach from Vizag and Kolkata to the Northeast, without being dependent on Bangladesh. The high-speed corridor will ensure transportation of goods via road after that, which will spur economic activity in the region," the NHIDCL official Shillong-Silchar high-speed corridor will be extended to Mizoram's Zorinpuri, where the KMMTTP project route enters India, before terminating in the capital city of Aizawl, said the Indian Express December 2024, Union Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh said that the KMMTTP was expected to be completed by July 2025, reported The Assam route would not only bypass the rail and road routes from Kolkata to Northeast India through Bangladesh, but would also help in eliminating the need to move goods through the narrow Siliguri Corridor. The Chicken's Neck is a narrow 22-km-wide strategic corridor in West Bengal that connects the northeastern states to the rest of India. (File Image) WHAT'S KALADAN PROJECT AND HOW IT WILL BYPASS BANGLADESHThe KMMTTP, a multimodal project jointly conceived by India and Myanmar in 2008, combines maritime, riverine, and road goods and people travel between Kolkata and the northeastern states either through the longer Siliguri Corridor or via Bangladesh. The Bangladesh route includes road and rail links from Kolkata to Dhaka, as well as the Akhaura-Agartala connectivity by both road and the KMMTTP, in present circumstances, could offer a much shorter route than the one via the Siliguri KMMTTP, once complete, would first enable ships to travel from Kolkata to Sittwe Port in Myanmar's Rakhine State, initially on the Hooghly River and then through the Bay of Bengal. From Sittwe, goods would be transported via the Kaladan River to Paletwa town in Chin Paletwa, a 109-km road would lead to the town of Zorinpui on the India-Myanmar border in Mizoram. Once completed, the KMMTTP will reduce travel time and distance between Kolkata and the Northeast considerably, compared to the current route through works on the Indian stretch and the construction of Sittwe Port, the river terminal at Paletwa, and dredging of the Kaladan River, have been completed, according to a December 2024 piece in The Week magazine. The completion on the Indian side has also been confirmed by Mizoram Governor General VK Singh. A map showing the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project, connecting Kolkata to Mizoram via Myanmar through sea, river, and road routes. (Image: India Today/ Vipul Kumar) advertisementIn February 2022, IRCON, a PSU under the Ministry of Railways, was appointed as the implementing agency for the construction of the 109-km road from Paletwa to Zorinpui, reported the PSU Watch news due to political instability, logistical challenges, and security concerns in Myanmar's Rakhine State, the road between Myanmar's Paletwa and Mizoram's Zorinpui remains was in fact the town of Paletwa that has witnessed intense fighting amid Myanmar's civil war, with the military junta locked in a violent armed conflict against the Arakan these roadblocks, a recent statement made by Abhay Thakur, India's Ambassador to Myanmar, in April 2025 suggests that work is underway on the incomplete Myanmar section of the Kaladan project, and there is hope that it is moving towards completion."Myanmar, under the framework of both the 'Neighbourhood First' and 'Act East' policies, is an important developmental partner of India. To begin with, we are engaged in several strategically significant projects, including the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project and the India-Thailand Trilateral Highway Project," Thakur told news agency Bangladesh courting China and India tightening the trade screws, the Kaladan Project is not a detour, but a major diplomatic flex of New Delhi. With the completion of the Kaladan project, India would not just create a new route to the northeast but also open a road to development in the region, despite all the Watch
Deccan Herald
18-05-2025
- Business
- Deccan Herald
Why bypassing Bangladesh and connecting Northeast with Kolkata via Myanmar is important for India
In light of the situation, India realised that completing the Kaladan Multi Modal Transit Transport Project (KMMTTP) that links Mizoram to Kolkata via Myanmar has become of the utmost importance.
Indian Express
17-05-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
Why Northeast-Kolkata link via Myanmar — not Bangladesh — is significant
Amid a downturn in India's relationship with Bangladesh, the long-delayed Kaladan Multi Modal Transit Transport Project (KMMTTP) linking Mizoram to Kolkata via Myanmar has grown in importance. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has now okayed a 166.8-km four-lane highway from Shillong to Silchar, which will eventually be extended to Zorinpui, Mizoram, and connect the KMMTTP with a high-speed road corridor that runs through the heart of the Northeast, The Indian Express reported. 'With the help of the Kaladan project, cargo will reach from Vizag and Kolkata to the Northeast, without being dependent on Bangladesh,' a senior official from National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL) told The Indian Express. Ties between New Delhi and Dhaka have taken a nosedive since the ouster of former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, an all-weather ally to India, last August. The MoRTH sanctioned the Shillong-Silchar highway about a month after Muhammad Yunus, the head of Bangladesh's interim government, called Northeast India 'landlocked', and referred to Bangladesh as the 'only guardian of the ocean' during a visit to China. For New Delhi, this was a matter of concern. Currently, rest of India's only access to the seven Northeastern states is through the narrow Siliguri Corridor, which goes by the apt moniker of 'Chicken's Neck'. Straddled between Nepal and Bangladesh, and only 20 km at its narrowest, this corridor has long posed an economic and a strategic challenge to New Delhi — one that has prompted some experts to call it 'an Achilles heel for India'. Over the last decade-and-a-half, an important element of New Delhi's engagement with the Hasina government in Dhaka was to open pathways to the Northeast via Bangladesh — as would have been the case pre-Partition. (Note that Agartala, the capital of Tripura, lies less than 200 km from the port of Chattogram in Bangladesh.) This, experts argue, would boost economic activity across the Northeast as well as in Bangladesh. But with a new, seemingly 'anti-India' dispensation in place in Dhaka, these plans have fallen by the wayside, prompting India to 'Look [further] East'. After feasibility studies were conducted in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the KMMTTP framework was signed by India and Myanmar in 2008. This was set to be a major development in India's strategically vital Look East Policy. (Act East Policy under the Narendra Modi government). The idea behind the project was straightforward. To create a transit corridor from the port of Sittwe in the Rakhine State in Myanmar to Mizoram, and eventually the rest of Northeast India. This would allow goods to be shipped from India's easten ports — primarily Kolkata — to Sittwe and then taken to Mizoram and beyond. Upon completion, the KMMTTP would effectively shave off 1,000 km in distance between Kolkata and Mizoram, and save a journey time of three-to-four days. As former Ministry of External Affairs Joint Secretary Sripriya Ranganathan had said during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Myanmar in 2014: '[the KMMTTP is a] totally win-win kind of a project in which we get the access that we seek to ensure to our Northeast, while Myanmar gets an asset which it will be able to use and that will benefit the people of a fairly backward and under-developed [Rakhine] state'. As the term 'multi-modal' suggests, the project combines several modes of transport. * Kolkata to Sittwe: This 539 km stretch between the two seaports will be covered by ship via the Bay of Bengal. Although this route has technically been operational for decades, India has invested significant resources to upgrade the Sittwe port to increase its capacity. This part of the project has been completed. * Sittwe to Paletwa: This 158 km stretch on the Kaladan river in Myanmar will be covered by boat. The MEA has invested in dredging the river, and constructing requisite jetty facilities at Paletwa to handle 300-tonne barges. The river is navigable and all work has bee completed on this part of the project. *Paletwa to Zorinpui: This 108 km four-lane road will be the last leg of the corridor in Myanmar. Myanmar has granted all approvals for this part of the project, and the Integrated Customs & Immigration Checkpost at Zochawchhuah-Zorinpui has been operational since 2017. But the last 50-odd-km of this highway (from Kaletwa, Myanmar to Zorinpui) is yet to be completed. *Zorinpui to Aizwal & beyond: While Zorinpui is connected to Aizwal and the rest of the Northeast by road, the NHIDCL plans to eventually extend the high-speed corridor from Shillong all the way to the border town, The Indian Express reported. Behind long delay Although work on the KMMTTP began a decade and a half ago, the political situation in the Rakhine State has precluded the corridor from becoming operational. The project was set to be completed in 2016. Myanmar is among the most ethnically diverse countries in the world, while the Bamar/Burman make up more than 65% of the population, there are well over 100 ethnic minorities spread across the country. Since 1948, when it received independence from British rule, Myanmar's many ethnic minorities have been in armed conflict with the Bamar-dominated state (and often each other). This conflict once again picked up after a military coup in 2021 ousted the nominally civilian government that had been in place in Yangon for a decade. A BBC study published in December 2024 estimated that the Tatmadaw (Myanmar's military) controls only 21% of territory, with the rest divided among a dozen or so warring ethnic militias. Much of the Rakhine State — through which the KMMTTP passes — is currently under control of the Arakan Army, now rebranded with the more-inclusive moniker Rakhine Army. To get the corridor operational, New Delhi will thus have to deal with an ethnic militia which Yangon has officially designated as a terrorist outfit. That, along with the fact that Rakhine State has seen some of the worst fighting in the civil war, has been a major stumbling block for the KMMTTP. In 2022, India inked a new contract with IRCON International Limited, a public sector undertaking of the Indian Railways. The terms of the deal require IRCON to sub-contract the construction of the incomplete sections of the highway, and finish the project within 40 months. One clause in the agreement, however, adds that this deadline can be extended for reasons including 'war, riots, [and] civil disorder'. While IRCON has signed up some local contractors, the project is yet to make a headway. Notably, the Arakan Army itself claims to support the construction of the highway. 'We have been providing security for the project along the Kaladan since 2021. There is no security threat for the project,' Khaing Thu Kha, spokesperson of the Arakan Army, told The Diplomat in 2024.
Time of India
11-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Centre expediting Kaladan project due to B'desh threats: Zoramthanga
Aizawl: Mizoram former chief minister Zoramthanga said the Centre has given more importance to the ongoing Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project (KMMTTP) linking Mizoram with Paletwa in Myanmar 's southern Chin state in view of the narratives of the new Bangladesh his visit to Zorinpui, located at the Myanmar border and the road section of the KMMTTP, on Saturday and even as he entered Myanmar along the road, Zoramthanga said the connectivity provided by the project will be a blessing for the people of Mizoram. He also said the Centre has woken up to give top priority to the early completion of the Mizo National Front (MNF) president alleged that Bangladesh is now ruled by radical rulers. and the present regime said apart from the 20km-long Siliguri corridor, also known as 'chicken neck', India's northeastern states do not have any link with the rest of the country. Bangladesh leaders are saying if the 'chicken neck is cut off, the northeast region will not have any sea link and threatened that the region can be captured with the help of China, he said. "The threats from Bangladesh has compelled the Centre to become aware of the importance of the KMMTTP and the need to expedite its completion as a priority project. The central govt is now aware of the importance of the project for the northeast and other parts of India," the former chief minister added that MNF will become useful in completion of the project. Rakhine state, earlier known as Arakan, used to be a safe haven for the erstwhile underground MNF where they established their headquarters called the 'Capital Headquarters' before signing the Mizo Accord in 1986. Get the latest lifestyle updates on Times of India, along with Mother's Day wishes , messages , and quotes !
Time of India
25-04-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Kaladan project to bring sea change in economy of region: VK Singh
Aizawl: Mizoram governor Gen VK Singh on Friday said the construction of the Kaladan Multi Modal Transit Transport Project ( KMMTTP ), which links Mizoram with Sittwe Port (Akyab) in Rakhine state of Myanmar and is designed to serve as a gateway to South Asian countries from the northeast, has been completed on the Indian side. Addressing an event at Mizoram University to celebrate the silver jubilee of the lone central university in the state, Singh said the completion of the project has been facing hurdles due to non-completion of the road construction on the other side of the international border. He expressed hope that the Centre would find ways to ensure completion of the construction on the Myanmar side. Implementation of the ambitious project will bring a sea change in the economy of Mizoram and other states of the region, he said. The 'KMMTTP road' refers to a road component of the KMMTTP. This project aims to connect the eastern Indian port of Kolkata with Sittwe Port in Myanmar by sea, then via the Kaladan river to Paletwa in southern Chin state, and finally by road into Mizoram. The road component of KMMTTP connects Paletwa to the India-Myanmar border and further into Mizoram. The governor said Mizoram has a huge potential to become a tourist hub, especially with six wildlife sanctuary promoting wildlife tourism.
