New Delhi: With work on the crucial Kaladan Multimodal Transit Transport Project (KMTTP) getting stalled due to the conflict between Myanmar’s resistance forces and the military junta intensifying, India is now playing a delicate balancing game to protect its interests in the eastern neighbour.
The KMTTP connects the port of Haldia in West Bengal with the port of Sittwe in Myanmar that was built with funding from India. The corridor then links Sittwe with Paletwa town in Chin State of Myanmar via the Kaladan river boat route. Paletwa is then linked with Mizoram by road. All components of the project, including the Sittwe port, have been completed, except the under-construction Zorinpui-Paletwa road.
Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal and Deputy Prime Minister and Union Minister for Transport and Communications of Myanmar Admiral Tin Aung San had jointly inaugurated the Sittwe port in the Rakhine State of Myanmar in May last year.
However, according to reports, the port in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State, is now under the control of the Tatmadaw or the Myanmar army while Paletwa town is under the control of the ethnic-Rakhine Arakan Army resistance group. The Arakan Army is part of the Three Brotherhood Alliance that launched Operation 1027 against Myanmar’s military junta in October last year. The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) and Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) are the other two resistance groups comprising the Three Brotherhood Alliance.
“Work on the Kaladan project is not progressing at all,” Mr Kim, a Myanmarese political activist, told ETV Bharat over phone from somewhere along the Mizoram-Myanmar border. “Paletwa is under total control of the Arakan Army which is now in the process of building up its own administration.”
At the same time, he said that border trade is going on between Mizoram and Chin State in Myanmar. “India is allowing the supply of essential commodities to the Arakanese people in Chin State,” Mr Kim said. “These include sugar, mustard oil, peanut oil, biscuits, medicines and petrol. For this, the Arakan Army is appreciative of the Government of India.”
In fact, earlier this year, K Vanlalvena, the lone Rajya Sabha member from Mizoram, met rebels of the Arakan Army across the border in Myanmar to take stock of the Kaladan project. He also met officers of the construction company IRCON, and Indian PSU. According to a Mizoram government press release, during his meeting with IRCON and its two Myanmar sub-contractors, Vanlalvena expressed his disappointment at the slow progress of work on the Kaladan project. He urged IRCON and its sub-contractors to speed up the work.
Pointing out that India is engaging with both sides of the conflict, Mr Kim said that New Delhi also has good relations with junta leader Min Aung Hlaing. In fact outgoing Indian Ambassador to Myanmar Vinay Kumar held a meeting with Min Aung Hlaing on March 29 and discussed cooperation between India and Myanmar.
