The Kaladan Multi-modal Transit Transport Project, a project that aims to enhance trade between Indian and Myanmar by reducing distance from India’s eastern commercial hub Kolkata to the city of Sittwe in western Myanmar, is expected to complete in December, according to a statement of Myanmar Port Authority (MPA) on November 10.
The $ 480 million project that will link Kolkata with Sittwe by sea as well as Indian’s landlocked northeastern states with Myanmar by boat route and land transport was originally scheduled to be completed by 2014. But the forecast was postponed to December 2016 and now the MPA said it is expected to complete on the rescheduled time. The project is to be implemented in three phases. India has already built a $120 million deep-sea port in Sittwe as part of the first phase which also includes the construction of Paletwa Jetty and six vessels as well as dredging the Kaladan waterway. The second phase deals with the construction of 109 km road that will connect Paletwa, a small westernmost town of Myanmar, with India-Myanmar border region and the third phase is to build a 60 km highway between Lwangtlai, a town in Mizoram state in northeastern India, and Myanmar’s Chin state. India is also planning to set up a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Myanmar, where its regional competitors China and Japan are on their halfway developing SEZs, according to Indian Minister of State for External Affairs Vijay Kumar Singh who unveiled the plan at an India-ASEAN foreign ministers meeting held in Laos in late July.
Myanmar and India signed the agreement for the Kaladan Multi-modal Transit Transport Project in 2008. The project will enable India to connect to mainland Southeast Asia through Myanmar and vice versa Myanmar will be able to link with inner India through Kolkata.
