Construction of the road that will connect Paletwa in Myanmar to Zorinpui in Mizoram as part of the Kaladan Multimodal Transit Transport Project (KMTTP) is underway in full swing, Myanmar’s Commerce Minister U Aung Naing Oo said.
The minister dismissed concerns that the turmoil in Myanmar’s Rakhine would have any impact on the project, stating that it was being developed in the western part of the state, while the unrest was happening on the other side.
The deep-water Sittwe port, funded under grant-in-aid assistance from the Indian government, is part of the Rs 3,200-crore KMTTP, sanctioned by the Centre in 2008. Once fully operationalised, KMTTP will link the east coast of India to the north-eastern states through the Sittwe port. It would enhance bilateral and regional trade.
In March, MoS for External Affairs RK Ranjan Singh said the project got delayed due to the political situation in Myanmar.
KMTTP links the Kolkata port to Sittwe port, which is then connected through an inland waterway along the Kaladan river to the western Myanmarese town of Paletwa. Paletwa will then be connected to the India-Myanmar border at Zorinpui by a 110-km-long road.
From the border, another 100 km road is being developed to connect an existing national highway at Lawngtlai town in Mizoram.
Oo said the work for the rest of the infrastructure on the Myanmar side is complete, and at present, the road is being developed.
In April, Mizoram’s Public Works Department (PWD) told the state’s Governor Haribabu Kambhampati that 98.01 per cent of the 100-km road from Zorinpui to Lawngtlai was complete.
Union Shipping and Ports Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and Myanmar’s Deputy Prime Minister Admiral Tin Aung San jointly inaugurated the Sittwe Port in Myanmar on May 9, and received the first Indian cargo ship carrying 20,000 bags containing 1,000 metric tonnes of cement.
The cargo ship was flagged off from Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port in Kolkata on May 4.
