Shillong: As Bangladesh continues to deny India access to landlocked northeast through Chittagong port, a little-known Burmese port on the Bay of Bengal has promised to solve the long-standing problem.

Sittwe port on the Myanmar coast was not long ago a small village of fishing communities and farmers. Now, it could serve as a commercial sea route to the north-eastern states through Burmese territory.

A Union Commerce Ministry team, which recently came here in connection with a seminar, said that the port has attained immense strategic importance with India developing the port, expanding facilities to accommodate goods traffic under an agreement signed by the two governments in April, this year.

From Sittwe the Kaladan River will be made navigable for 225 km, up to Kaletwa (Myanmar). From there, a 62-km highway will take the traffic to the India-Myanmar border in the Indian state of Mizoram.

A road from the border will link the project to India's National Highway-54. The sea distance between Kolkata and Sittwe is about 540 km. India is financing the entire USD 103 million project.

DONER minister Mani Shankar Aiyar recently said, "The Union cabinet would soon sanction a project of the Union Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways for developing highway connectivity in Mizoram and along the 250-km route to the port."

To improve road connectivity within Mizoram the Union ministry for shipping, road transport and highways has sanctioned Rs 120 crore to state for development of national highways during 2008-09 as part of steps to develop the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transport project to link Sittwe Port with India.
Source : PTI