Myanmar Wants Asian Highway Entry Point From India

Myanmar wants the proposed Asian highway linking South and Southeast Asia to enter its territory from north-east India and not from Bangladesh, an official of the U N Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (Escap) said.

Myanmar wants the highway to enter it at Tamu from Imphal in India and not from Teknaf, the tip of south-eastern Bangladesh, according to M Rahmatullah, director, transportation, communication and tourism, at the Bangkok-based Escap which is coordinating the transportation project.

Rahmatullah, who was in Dhaka to attend a seminar, said that even the Bangladesh government had accepted the Imphal-Tamu route.

Myanmar does not favour the Teknaf route because it is not economically profitable. The mid-stream of the Naf river at Teknaf is the boundary between Bangladesh and Myanmar, with Arakan on the other side.

While Bangladesh has a good road to Teknaf, there is no road of the needed quality linking Yangon to Teknaf. Each country, through which the highway would run, has to build its part of the road itself.

India and Myanmar agree that the highway should pass through Imphal in India on to Tamu in Myanmar, Rahmatullah said.

An international conference which would try to solve problems linked with the Bangladesh section of the highway would be held in Dhaka in December where Pakistan, India, Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar would be represented.

According to the Escap official, the Singapore-Malaysia-Thailand section of the Asian highway had already been built. A bridge linking Thailand and Myanmar would open to traffic on August 15.

Thailand is helping build a part of the highway in eastern Myanmar while India is assisting on a section in western Myanmar.

The Bangladesh government has not so far proposed any changes in routing the Asian highway from Tamabil in north-eastern Sylhet in Bangladesh, he added.

The Bangladesh government had discussed changes in the highway route with the Escap in May this year.

Although Rahmatullah did not say what was discussed then, there are indications that the Bangladesh government would like the Asian highway to be routed through its Sylhet-Austragram section.

In case that happens, observers say, it would be a defeat for the former BNP government of Bangladesh because it had opposed the Sylhet-Austragram route.

Quoting from a letter sent by the BNP government to the Escap two years ago, Rahmatullah said that Dhaka had then proposed routing the highway through Sylhet-Tamabil in Bangladesh to move on to Imphal in India and Tamu in Myanmar, although it would mean a detour of an extra 360 km.

After initial reluctance, India had agreed to this route on Dhakas request, he said.

Escap has neither the responsibility nor the power to decide the route of the highway, he said, adding its role is limited to that of a coordinator.

The decision has to be taken to the countries through which the highway would pass.

He also made it clear that it was the former BNP government in Dhaka which had proposed taking the Asian highway through the Chittagong-Coxs Bazar route onwards to Teknaf, the last point in Bangladesh.

However, the BNP government changed its decision whether it would allow the highway to pass through Tamabil in Sylhet district or Austragram in Kishoreganj district creating confusion at home and abroad.