Mizzima
The Member of Parliament (MP) for the Indian state of Mizoram, Pu Valavena, met with officials from the Arakan Army (AA) to discuss building a road from the Indian border to Paletwa Township in Chin State, as part of a transport project.
The Indian MP and his team met AA officials at the border on 29 February and the AA provided security, according to local newspapers from Mizoram State.
They discussed the building of a 110 km long four-lane highway between Zorampu, a village in Myanmar on the border with India, to Paletwa Township in Chin State.
The road will be part of the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project (KMMTTP).
The project is designed to connect the landlocked states of northeastern India with the rest of India. Currently, the only way to transport goods from those states to the rest of India is to take them through a narrow strip of Indian territory north of Bangladesh and south of Bhutan, known as the Chicken’s Neck.
The KMMTTP will provide an alternative, shorter route that will be cheaper and quicker to use. From the Myanmar side of the Indian border at Zorampu, goods will go along the highway to Paletwa Port by truck. They will then be transferred onto boats and taken down the Kaladan River to a port at the mouth of the Kaladan River in Sittwe, Rakhine State, before being taken by sea to the Indian port of Kolkata, 539km away.
India has invested US$ 484 million into the project which was started 13 years ago and has missed many deadlines since. So far, in Myanmar, the building of the river port at Paletwa, the dredging of the Kaladan River so that it can take bigger cargo ships and the construction of the port at the mouth of the Kaladan River in Sittwe have been completed, but the road between Zorampu to Paletwa still needs to be built.
Construction of the road was suspended in 2020, but it restarted in early 2023 and as recently as June 2023 the junta Federal Economy and Commerce Minister U Aung Naing Oo said that the road was under construction and that completion of the KMMTTP would not be affected by fighting in Rakhine State.
But, the AA broke a November 2022 ceasefire with the junta in Rakhine State and Chin State in November 2023. The renewed fighting then stopped construction of the road and the AA took control of Paletwa.
The Indian Government had already held talks with the junta about the Zorampu to Paletwa highway, but since the AA has now taken control of Paletwa it is having to deal with the AA.
Though the Indian government is dealing with the AA regarding the Zorampu to Paletwa highway it is still in discussions with the junta about the KMMTTP as the junta still controls other sections of the route, such as the port in Sittwe at the mouth of the Kaladan River.
The original agreement for constructing the KMMTTP was signed between the Indian Government and the Myanmar government.
