Manipur Town on Road to Becoming Gateway to South Asia

By Amitabh Sinha

Moreh, Feb 25 : About 120 km southeast of Imphal, on the India-Myanmar border, the first steps are being taken towards giving shape to the Indian part of a grand Asian dream — to have a trans-Asian highway, a network of modern roads running through more than 30 countries that will eventually connect the whole of Asia to Europe.

The small border town of Moreh in Manipur would then become India’s gateway to southeast Asia, letting people drive freely into Myanmar and then onwards into Thailand, to as far as Singapore.

Though the existing road running to Moreh from Assam, the National Highway 39 that will become part of the Asian highway, is in extremely dilapidated state and needs a major upgradation, work has begun on creating the border infrastructure that would be necessary to support such a road network.

One of the first tasks is to build a modern entry and exit point, with airport-like facilities that will facilitate the easy movement of people and vehicles across international borders.

The Manipur government has just completed a long drawn-out process for acquiring land for the construction of an Integrated Checkpost (ICP) at Moreh, a one-stop transit point like an airport that will have immigration, customs, cargo processing, currency exchange and other similar facilities under the same roof.

“The process of land acquisition had begun three-four years ago. But we have been able to complete it only now. We have given compensation to most of the 400-odd claimants who owned the land. In about a month or so, the land would be vacated by these people and the construction of ICP will start,” said H Deleep Singh, Deputy Commissioner of Chandel district, under which Moreh falls, who oversaw the distribution of cheques to the last batch of claimants.

Moreh is one of the 13 places on the borders with Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar where the government of India is constructing such modern ICPs.

Last week, Home Minister P Chidambaram laid the foundation stone for the ICP at Attari on Pakistan border, which will be the first one to be completed, by April next year.

Eventually, a Land Ports Authority of India, something similar to the Airports Authority of India, is to be created for the construction and management of these ICPs. A Bill for setting up the LPAI has been introduced in Parliament.

In Moreh, work on fencing the international border with Myanmar has also begun. In the first phase, 10 km of border is being fenced. Alongside the land that has been acquired for constructing the integrated checkpost, a road is being built parallel to the border connecting nearby villages. These are essential to check the infiltration of underground militant groups that are now operating from camps inside Myanmar.

“Peace is absolutely vital for infrastructure development. Many of the underground groups have set up their camps in Myanmar and are operating out of there. We are trying our best to keep them at bay,” said P Joykumar, Director General of Police of Manipur.

“The situation has improved a lot. Significantly, none of these groups are opposed to the highway, or the ICP or other infrastructure development works being carried out,” said Col Rabroop Singh, the commanding officer of 31 Assam Rifles.