Turmoil in Rakhine won't impact Kaladan project: Myanmar minister

Kolkata: Myanmar's Commerce Minister U Aung Naing Oo said that turmoil in the country's Rakhine state will not have any impact on the Kaladan Multimodal Transit Transport Project (KMTTP) with India.

Interacting with reporters here on Monday, Oo said that as part of the project, construction of the road connecting Paletwa in Myanmar to Zorinpui in Mizoram is underway in full swing.

The minister said that the road is being constructed in the western part of Rakhine state of Myanmar, while turmoil is happening on another side.

"We are hopeful it will be completed soon," he said on the sidelines of an event at EEPC India, refusing to share a timeline.

Oo said full-fledged operations at the Sittwe port in Rakhine would begin soon, and it will be transformational in bilateral trade with India, besides improving connectivity between the two countries.

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.

It will also provide a strategic link to the Northeast, thereby reducing pressure on the Siliguri corridor.

In March, MoS for External Affairs R K Ranjan Singh said the project got delayed due to the political situation in Myanmar.

"Because of the unpredictable atmosphere occurring in Myanmar, our progress in view of the Kaladan project is getting delayed a bit," he had told reporters in Aizawl.

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-long road is being constructed 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 built.

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.