The recently inaugurated country’s longest bridge linking Assam and Arunachal Pradesh will have many positives for the economic development of the North-East, the country’s strategic interests, and trade relations with neighbouring nations
The North-East (N-E) is the new engine of growth, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi while inaugurating the longest, 9.15 km Dodha-Sadiya bridge of the country, linking Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.
But can a bridge change the fate of disaster and a poverty-ridden regionIJ In fact, this is much more than a bridge. It is becoming a major land gateway to Southeast Asia — Bangkok, Phuket, Singapore — and an emerging area of global prosperity. The bridge reduces the travel time from Rupai on NH 37 to Meka/Roing on NH 52 in Arunachal Pradesh from six hours to only an hour. The bridge is quake-resistant and can take a load of 110 tonnes, as against India’s main battle tank’s weight of 68.6 tonnes. It can troops to India-Tibet border, McMahon line, in a jiffy in all-weather conditions. This came with the foundation-stone laying of the region’s first All India Institute of Medical Sciences and Indian Agricultural Research Institute. In a day, Modi announced Rs3,500 crore projects for the region. A total investment of over one lakh crore rupees is envisaged in the next five years.
In January this year, another crucial bridge was inaugurated by Union Minister for Shipping and Road Transport Nitin Gadkari on the Brahmaputra at Saraighat. He had announced a number of new road projects and bridges for Assam, worth Rs65,000 crore over the next five years. The North-East is changing, says Arunachal Chief Minister Pema Khandu. “Now we do not have to queue up in Delhi to meet Ministers. They come to us.”
The region feels its isolation is ending and it is privy to a new development path that connects not only the rest of the country but beyond, to Bangladesh and Southeast Asia. It is now part of India’s Act East strategy started by then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Even the Dodha-Sadiya bridge was conceptualised by Vajpayee.
The new bridge has brought cheers to 40,000 tea growers, including 509 tea gardens and factories in Tinsukia and Dibrugarh districts, Arunachal Pradesh’s Roing and adjacent areas, cut-off from the mainland for centuries. It produces 40 crore kg of green leaf per annum. The North-East will denote new economy, new energy and new empowerment.
The Modi Government has taken many diplomatic activities to connect the region. The transit between N-E to other areas in the country is to be faster, as transit through Bangladesh is becoming a reality. Direct bus services, flight from Guwahati to Dhaka, Bangladesh visa office and a joint tour package with Bangladesh, will bring this hilly region closer to the beaches of Cox’s Bazar.
Bangaldeshis will now have access to Kaziranga sanctuary and can invest in textiles, tissue paper making, food items and ceramics in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Nagaland, Mizoram and Arunachal. Bangladesh imports seven billion dollars of goods a year. Now it will have opportunities to invest to boost their economy.
As the Dodha-Sadhia bridge takes Indian troops faster to the China border, the bridge on Feni in Tripura will ferry heavy machines and goods to and from the N-E and the rest of Indiavia Bangladesh through the Chittagong international port, as per a new agreement. Dhaka had earlier agreed to allow India to use the Chittagong port, about 72 km from Tripura’s southern border town of Sabroom. The move is aimed at boosting investment and production in the region. A gradual transformation in this area is increase in local production and reduction of imports either China or northern Indian.
Two more toll roads are to be built along both banks of the Brahmaputra. The roads, to serve as flood protection walls, would be constructed using silt dredged to improve the navigability of the river. This is expected to improve the farm production and reduce seasonal miseries.
The new Indian Agricultural Research Institute is to boost production in the region with the Scheme for Agro Marine Produce Processing and Development of Agro-Processing Clusters. This will be a Rs6,000 crore umbrella project for seamless transfer of food products for producing to consuming areas.
Development is happening in Mizoram too. The Kaladan corridor is poised to link N-E with southeast Asia through multi-modal transit system (KMTT) based on road, river and seas as part of the Act East policy. It is to be developed as a potential sea-gate. The project includes the improvement of Sittwe port in Arakan Province, west Myanmar, construction of an inland waterway on Kaladan river and preparation for a highway transportation system linking up with the Mizoram capital of Aizwal. Consequently, road transport is proposed to the Indian border in Mizoram.
The North-East has better prospects, as Indian Ambassador to Thailand Bhagwant Singh Bishnoi said in May 2016. For the first time in decades, India will be linked by land to Southeast Asia. India, Thailand and Myanmar are working on a 1,400-kilometre-long tri-nation highway, in a bid to provide a boost to trade and cultural exchanges among the three countries. India is funding renovation of 73 bridges. The planned highway starts from Moreh in India and reach Tak in Thailand.
The road will help in transportation of goods and further development of small and medium enterprises in the N-E. Myanmar’s Dawei deep-sea port and industrial estate project near the Thailand border is also expected to help further integrate eastern India with Southeast Asian countries. The planned port can be linked up with India’s Chennai port as well as Thailand’s laem Chabang Port.
The Modi vision is likely to transform the region with high resource lacking people. It is connecting the least linked-up areas to prosperity by opening up avenues beyond the eastern borders and to the seas.
(The writer is a senior journalist)