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The Print
26-05-2025
- Business
- The Print
India must look beyond Bangladesh. Kolkata-Sittwe-Aizawl corridor is key to Northeast
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)
India.com
17-05-2025
- Business
- India.com
Modi govt hits anti India Yunus hard over his 'chicken neck' remark, launches this big project in..., now Bangladesh...
New Delhi: The Government of India is set to construct a highway from Shillong to Silchar. This highway will provide an alternative link between the northeastern states and Kolkata via the sea route. This information was provided by an official from the National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL), reports The Indian Express. This project was approved on April 30th of this year by the Union Cabinet. The estimated cost of the project is 22,864 crore rupees. Of the total length of the project, 144.8 km is in Meghalaya and 22 kilometers in Assam. Once this project is completed, the dependence on the Siliguri Corridor for accessing the northeastern states will be reduced. The role of engineers will be crucial in constructing Shillong to Silchar highway as the area also includes large mountains. An officer of NHIDCL has stated that this highway project is a response to a recent statement made by Mohammad Yunus, the chief advisor of Bangladesh's interim government. In March, Yunus said in Beijing that India's northeastern region is landlocked and that Bangladesh is the sole guardian of the ocean for the entire area. India had taken a dim view of Yunus's statement. Prime Minister Narendra Modi advised Yunus to avoid statements that could deteriorate the atmosphere. This project is special as a 166.8 km long four-lane highway is to be constructed from Mawlyngkhung near Shillong to Panchgram near Silchar in Assam on NH-6. This is the first high-speed corridor project in the Northeast. NHIDCL is developing it for the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), and it is expected to be completed by 2030. In addition, the Ministry of External Affairs in Myanmar is funding the Kaladan Multi Modal Transit Transport Project. This project connects the Kolkata port to the Sittwe port which is linked to Paletwa in Myanmar via waterways and to Zoringpui in Mizoram by road. NHIDCL will extend this project from Zoringpui through Lungtau to Aizawl in Mizoram. After this, India will not rely on Bangladesh. An NHIDCL officer stated that with the help of the Kaladan project, goods from the northeastern region will reach Vishakhapatnam and Kolkata, and India will not have to depend on Bangladesh for this. Once this high-speed corridor is established, it will be easier to transport goods along this route, which will also promote economic activities in the region. Currently, the only way to reach the seven northeastern states is through the Siliguri corridor, which is famously known as 'chicken neck'.
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.
