New super highway will run through Burma
2nd June 2012
Plans to construct a four lane road connecting India with Burma and Indo-China are possible since the fall of the Burmese military regime
As Burma enters a new political, social and economic era under President Thein Sein, it is opening its doors in every direction. Following the recent news of planned rail links with Thailand, India is now forging its own connection with Burma via a new super highway joining these two counties with Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.
This 'trilateral' highway is the initiative of the Indian government whose aim is to create a new economic zone ranging from Kolkata on the Bay of Bengal to Ho Chi Minh City on the South China Sea. On a visit to Burma earlier this week, the Indian prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh confirmed the first phase of the project with Sein setting a deadline of 2016 for completion of a super highway linking Guwahati in Assam to Burma's border with Thailand.
A two lane highway is already in place between the Indian border and Mandalay but these plans will see it widened to four lanes and extend it an extra 375 miles to the former capital of Rangoon.
With the fall of Burma's military regime and subsequent lifting of international sanctions against it, such links are now possible. According to analysts, this road is crucial to the plan to open a Mekong-India Corridor bypassing China and linking India, as the world's second fasting growing economy, with Indo-China.
The road will create new opportunities for gas and oil, along with bringing wealth to poor and marginalised areas like the north-east Indian state of Manipur.
Anyone else feel the seeds of a road trip plan taking root?
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