India's new North-East link to Kolkata via sea will bypass Bangladesh

India has decided to connect Kolkata and the rest of the country with the seven sisters by sea, giving Bangladesh a miss. 

The proposed highway from Shillong in Meghalaya to Silchar in Assam will become an extension of a key multi-modal transport project in Myanmar, leading to an alternative link via sea between the North-East states and Kolkata.

On April 30, India's Union Cabinet approved the project at a cost of Rs 22,864 crore. Of the total length of the project, 144.8 km lies in Meghalaya and 22 km in Assam. Once operational, the new alignment will reduce journey time from 8:30 hours to just 5 hours.

Currently, the only access to the seven North-East states is through the Siliguri Corridor, also called the ‘Chicken’s Neck’, for the rest of India. The other two points of entry are through Bangladesh and Myanmar.

The 166.8-km four-lane highway along NH-6 from Mawlyngkhung near Shillong to Panchgram near Silchar is the first high-speed corridor project in the northeast. It is being implemented by India's National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL) for the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) and is expected to be completed by 2030.

At the other end, the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project in Myanmar is being funded by the Ministry of External Affairs — and connects the Kolkata seaport to the Sittwe port on the Kaladan River in Rakhine state. Further, the Sittwe port connects to Paletwa in Myanmar through an inland waterway and to Zorinpui in Mizoram through a road section.

NHIDCL is viewing the project as a response to Bangladesh interim government chief adviser Muhammad Yunus’s remark in Beijing this March that North-East India is “landlocked” and Dhaka is the “only guardian of the ocean for all this region” — he said this while seeking “extension of the Chinese economy”. The remark displeased India.