Boost to Kaladan project: India-Myanmar signed MoU towards making Sittwe port operational
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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.