North East sea-road link via Myanmar back in focus as ties with Dhaka fray

India looks to fast-track a long-pending multimodal corridor to the North East via Myanmar, bypassing Bangladesh, amid rising regional tensions and shifting geopolitical equations

The Bill for the alternative way out of the North East using roads and a sea link, bypassing Bangladesh, could soar upward of Rs 20,000 crore, a government estimate shows. Even as there has been a lot of buzz about the project this week, this will be the third time in a decade the project will be revived.  But India will be calculating other benefits. The two major sea ports of Bangladesh - Chittagong, and to a lesser extent, Mongla - are keen to tap into the rising business from the North East of India, besides Nepal and Bhutan. An alternative through India operated Sittwe port in Myanmar could be deeply disruptive for these ambitions. 

 

The project is, however, older and dates back to the term of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government. A Detailed Project Report for development of this corridor as a sea-cum-road link to the Northeastern states through Myanmar was prepared by project consultancy firm RITES in 2002–2003.

 

This week, media reports said the Indian government has stepped up efforts to connect the North East through the India-operated Sittwe port in Myanmar. The move came after Bangladesh's chief advisor, Muhammad Yunus, highlighted how the region is landlocked without access to the ports of Chittagong and Mongla. The proposed link will involve a road network cutting through dense forests and soft hill terrains. 

 

A firm proposal for the project had emerged in 2009 based on the RITES report, when the Inland Waterways Authority of India, under the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways (MoPSW), was appointed as the project development consultant by the MEA. The reason the MEA got involved was that it concerned a foreign country, Myanmar. But the high bill of the road-cum-sea link and the prospect of improving ties with Bangladesh had made the project a slow mover.

 

Just the bill for the Kaladan Multimodal Transit Transport Project (KMTTP) would soak in an investment of Rs 3,200 crore. The KMTTP segment aimed to provide an alternative connectivity to the North East region from the Kolkata-Haldia port systems through Sittwe port–Kaladan river up to Paletwa in Myanmar by waterway, and Paletwa to Zorinpui by road in Mizoram. The next phase, the 168 km link to connect up to Shillong and Silchar, will be a costly exercise too. The Dhola-Sadiya bridge over the river Brahmaputra between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh cost Rs 2,056 crore.

 

Based on all the inputs, the KMTTP was cleared in October 2015 by the current government. “The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, gave its approval for the revised cost estimate of Rs 2,904.04 crore (about Rs 29 billion) for the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project in Myanmar,” an official statement after the meeting had noted. It was to be completed by 2018, even then an ambitious timeline.

 

The project, however, again went into slow burn as the cheaper alternative of river-based links through Bangladesh, under the Sheikh Hasina-led government, seemed to materially improve.

 

This could be a case of third-time lucky for the project. MoPSW is working on a more detailed plan along with the Road and Highways Ministry to develop the project as a part of the India–Myanmar–Thailand Trilateral Highway. A presentation to the Prime Minister’s Office is due soon.

 

Countries straddling the Bay of Bengal have access to a large set of ports. But the typical mountain and forest combinations in the hinterland from each of them restrict access among each other. A multimodal transport link jumps over these obstacles to cut travel time, which means greater trade among the ports. For instance, an earlier note by the MoPSW had recorded that “while the length of road from Kolkata to Agartala is around 1,600 km and takes four days via roadways, the Sittwe to Chittagong to Sabroom to Agartala will be done in two days, saving cost and time. In addition to reduction of traffic on the road, the use of marine transport will considerably lower the environmental cost of transport with a drop in fossil fuel carbon emission.” 

 

The change envisaged this time is to cut the Bangladesh leg from the equation to instead lead on from Sittwe to Mizoram via a road bridge. On a positive note, the port at Sittwe is already operational and cargoes from Kolkata-Haldia as well as further afield have begun to use the route.  In Bangladesh, the first privatisation of a terminal at its Chittagong port happened in 2024 when Saudi Arabian company  Red Sea Gateway Terminal started operations at the country's largest port. The port handles over 80 per cent of Bangladesh exim trade. The company has a 20 per cent investment by China’s Cosco Shipping Ports Limited (CSPL). At Mongla where India Ports Global was supposed to pick up a stake last year, the plans have got stayed. India naturally is leery of these developments and would wish to cut into this entente between China and Bangladesh.

 

It is not a coincidence that India’s two overseas ports, Chabahar in Iran and Sittwe in Myanmar, would benefit from the political disturbances in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Afghanistan would need Chabahar more as access through Pakistan to India has become difficult. Similarly, as Bangladesh raises the political temperature, the usefulness of Sittwe, situated in the Rakhine state of Myanmar, will deepen. The Sittwe port could be the gateway to the planned Eastern Waterways Connectivity Transport Grid of about 5,000 km navigable waterways to boost regional integration and trade with eastern South Asia, including Myanmar, Thailand and further afield to Singapore and Malaysia.

 

As of now, the seamless connection of NW-1 (Ganges), NW-2 (Brahmaputra) and NW-16 (Barak) would create the hugely needed opportunity for developing an economic corridor of 3,500 km connecting North Eastern India with the rest of India. Bhutan and Nepal could also be linked through the same multimodal connection.