Indo-Burma agreement expected on Kaladan project

New Delhi has been planning to develop a port in Sittwe, the capital of northwest Myanmar province of Rakhine (earlier known as Arakan). Called the Kaladan Multi-modal Project, it includes developing the Kaladan river to connect northeast India (through a road link from Kalewa in Myanmar to Aizawl) with the Bay of Bengal. The Sittwe is nearly 400 km away from Mizoram's capital Aizawl.

"The Kaladan project with a budget of $120 million will be a 'Build, Transfer, and Use' (BTU) project and will be financed by a grant by the government of India to its neighbour," informed Jairam Ramesh, the Indian junior commerce minister. Speaking to journalists in Chennai recently, Mr Ramesh also added that a final agreement on the project is likely to be signed during a high level Burmese delegates' visit to India during April this year.

"New Delhi wants to connect the Northeast with the commercial sea routes. Moreover, with the development of Sittwe port and the Kaladan river as a navigation efficient, the region is expected to have another viable access to the Association of South East Asian Nations," Ramesh argued during a recent visit to the Northeast. He also said arrangements would allow the movement of cargo ships from Sittwe to any Indian port.

The northeast - comprising Asom, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Tripura and Sikkim - is surrounded by Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet (now under Chinese territory), Burma and Bangladesh. With a cumulative population of nearly 50 million, the region is connected to the mainland by way of a Chicken Neck in North Bengal. More precisely, only two per cent of the region's territory is attached with the country.

Conceived and proposed by the Indian Foreign Ministry in 2003, the project - having obtained approval from the Planning Commission - has also been okayed by the Burmese government. The Kaladan flows from Mizoram to Sittwe (formerly Akyab) through another Burmese state named Chin (the capital city is Haka), and is the biggest waterway in the locality. The coastal region in western Burma is separated from the mainland by the Rakhine Yoma mountain range. Sittwe port, at the mouth of the Kaladan on the Rakhine coast, is an important harbour that emerged as a centre for rice export after British occupation in 1826. Earlier, it was a small fishing and farmer community.

The Kaladan project that will include shipping, riverine and road transport, is anticipated to be completed within four years and will include the construction of roads from Kalewa to Saiha (Mizoram border). Later, this road will be connected to India's National Highway 54 inside Mizoram. The project will be executed by India's public sector Rail India Technical Economic Services organisation and is expected to be commissioned by 2009.

New Delhi's move to invest in a Burmese port assumes significance in view of Dhaka's reluctance to give India access to Chittagong port, which is nearer to the Northeast. Moreover, the Bangladesh government has been showing an unwillingness to provide space to run a gas pipeline from Burmese land to Kolkata through its territory. Chittagong port is otherwise less than 200 km away from Agartala, the capital of Tripura.

 Special Correspondent