A sea route to northeast in the making
Document Actions
Transport project to connect Myanmar with India
February 18, 2008: (PTI) Aizawl, The Kolodyne Multi Modao Transport Project, which would connect Sittwe port in Myanmar with Mizoram, would be launched soon after the Indian and Myanmar governments signed a formal agreement in April, DONER Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said on Wednesday.
The multi-crore project would benefit not only Mizoram and the North East, but would open a gateway to South Asia, Aiyar told mediapersons at the Lengpui Airport near here after returning from south Mizoram.
“The project would make south Mizoram, the remotest part of the country, a hub of international trade,” Aiyar said, adding it would make true the prophesy by a great visionary about a hundred years ago that the south would be shining.
He asserted that the ‘Look East Policy’ would become a reality after the implementation of the project.
The Kolodyne Multi Modal Transport Project is bifurcated into two - one inside Myanmmar taken up by the Ministry of External affairs and the other inside Mizoram, to be monitored by the Ministry of Shipping, Highway and Transport.
The Myanmar project is estimated at Rs 550 crore while the estimate on Mizoram side, originally pegged at Rs 250 crore in 2000 is likely to be raised to Rs 400 crore, Additional Manager of RITES K G S Sharma, who accompanied the Union minister, said.
Aiyar, who also holds Sports portfolio, said that
comprehensive National Sports Policy would be introduced in the Parliament
during March.
Turning to rice scarcity in south Mizoram, he said the matter would be taken up with the Union Minister for Food Sharad Pawar and he would also urge Chief Minister Zoramthanga for immediate measures in this regard.