Published: 30th Oct, 2018
- India and Myanmar inked a crucial Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to appoint a private operator for operation and maintenance of Sittwe port located at the mouth of Kaladan River in Rakhine state of Myanmar.
- The port is a part of the Kaladan project which aims to connect Sittwe port in Myanmar to India-Myanmar border.
Context
- India and Myanmar inked a crucial Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to appoint a private operator for operation and maintenance of Sittwe port located at the mouth of Kaladan River in Rakhine state of Myanmar.
- The port is a part of the Kaladan project which aims to connect Sittwe port in Myanmar to India-Myanmar border.
About
- Myanmar is one of India’s strategic neighbours and shares a 1,640-km-long border with a number of north-eastern states including militancy-hit Nagaland and Manipur.
- India has an overall commitment of $1.75 billion for developmental programmes in Myanmar.Kaladan Project is one of them.
- The Sittwe port in Myanmar is expected to connect India’s landlocked north-east region to the Bay of Bengal through Mizoram. It will also provide an alternate route to Kolkata.
- Current MoU for the appointment of a private Port Operator also covers operation and maintenance of Paletwa Inland Water Terminal and associated facilities that are part of the Kaladan Multi Model Transit Transport Project.
- Following this MoU, the process of identifying bidders to maintain these facilities will be initiated by floating aRequest for Proposal (RFP).
Kaladanmulti modal transport transitProject
- The project was jointly identified by the India and Myanmar to create a multi-modal mode of transport for shipment of cargo from the eastern ports of India to Myanmar as well as to the North-Eastern part of India through Myanmar.
- The larger aim is to connect Sittwe port with India’s the Bay of Bengal ports of Visakhapatnam, Krishnapatnam and south Chennai and in future to Haldia, Paradip or Dhamra.
- Cargo from these ports will land in Sittwe port and from there to the Southeast Asian countries of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.
Significance
- Being a key connectivity project, commencement of operations at Sittwe port would offer new infrastructure for tradeby opening up the sea route between India and Myanmar.
- It will contribute to the economic development in the whole region, North-Eastern States of India and Rakhine and Chin States of Myanmar.
- It also provides a strategic link to the North-East, thereby reducing pressure on the Siliguri Corridor.
- The project is vital for India’s Act East Policy as it provides India access to Southeast Asian economies.
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