Taking forward the India-Myanmar-Thailand trilateral highway project, envisaged to improve trade between the three countries, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) is in its final stages of readying the bid document to get the project moving.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had expressed the need to expedite the tri-lateral highway project in a meeting with his Thai counterpart at the ASEAN summit meeting held in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar, in November last year.
The Government will open tenders for the 120-km-long Yagyi-Kalewa stretch, located entirely in the Sagaing region of Myanmar by May-end. “We have already submitted a detailed project report, complete with a feasibility and design study to the MEA, which will be funding the project,” said Avadesh Singh, Deputy Chief Executive Officer at Egis India, an engineering consulting firm.
“The tender document is almost ready. The MEA has to work out the pre-qualification details for the contractors, before we can open bids,” he said.
The Rs1200-crore project will be given out on Equipment, Procurement, Construction (EPC) mode, where the Government bears the financial risk. The contractor builds the project at the awarded rate.
The Government is aiming at a September 2015 deadline to start work on the stretch connecting India-Yagyi (Myanmar).
The stretch was originally constructed between 2000 and 2003 by the Myanmar Corps of Military Engineers. It was opened for public use in 2003. The stretch between Yagyi to Kalewa is in a bad shape and is currently maintained by Airfield Construction Special Unit. India has already built the stretch from Moreh in Manipur to Tamu- Kalewa in Myanmar and will be taking it forward till Yagyi.
“Since the Kalewa- Yagyi stretch is a hilly terrain and by the river, the construction is very tricky. A 70-metre hill also needs to be cut, so
the MEA needs to sort out the small yet integral issues with the Myanmar Government before opening tenders,” said Singh.
“Beyond Yagyi, the Myanmar side would undertake the upgradation of the road to a highway capacity. This will then establish connectivity from Moreh in India to Mae Sot in Thailand,” said a Government source.
Although it was originally agreed that the trilateral connectivity should be completed by 2016, the target date, yet it may take another four years for the project to see the light of day.