Sittwe Port

As Bangladesh continues to deny India access to the landlocked northeast through Chittagong port, a littleknown 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 fishermen and farmers. Now, it could serve as a commercial sea route to the north-east through Burmese territory. A Union Commerce Ministry team, which recently came here fora 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 state of Mizoram. A road from the border will link the project to India's NH-54 at Nalkawn in Mizoram. India is financing the entire USD 103 million project. DONER minister Mani Shankar Aiyar 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."