”The Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure (CCI) gave clearance to widen the National Highway 44 [from Shillong] up to Tripura’s southern most border town of Sabroom to four lanes,” a senior government official told Indo-Asian News Service.
The distance between Sabroom and Chittagong international port in southeast Bangladesh is just 75 kilometres.
The official said: “The high powered committee [HPC] of the union government, set up to finalise the projects in the northeast, has also sanctioned a new highway from Mizoram to the Myanmar border.”
The new 100km highway, from Lawngtalai in eastern Mizoram to Myanmar border at an estimated cost of Rs6.5 billion ($140 million), would provide linkage to the under-construction Sittwe port in Myanmar.
India is developing the Sittwe port in Myanmar at a cost of Rs.5.4 billion and the port on the Kaladan river would be a gateway for the northeastern states to the rest of the world. The Kaladan river connects Mizoram to the Bay of Bengal.
“After the completion of the project in 2012, Mizoram would be a gateway for international trade. Sittwe will provide an alternate route between the landlocked northeast region and the world. Goods from northeast can reach southern India through the Bay of Bengal via Sittwe,” the official told IANS.
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