July 10-16, Sittwe’s waterfront will get busier with the opening of the new seaport.

PLANS are underway for India to invest more than US$100 million in the construction of a port in the coastal town of Sittwe in Myanmar’s Rakhine State.

The port will allow cargo vessels from India’s landlocked northeastern Mizoram state to navigate the Kitsapanadi River, formerly known as the Kaladan River, all the way to Sittwe, where it spills into the Bay of Bengal.

“The northeast region [of India] is rich in resources, but due to lack of access their potential has always been under-utilised,” Dipankar Chatterjee, chairman of the Confederation of Indian Industry’s Northeastern Council, was quoted as saying by an international news agency. “A gateway through [Myanmar] will allow resource-led growth in the northeast.”

The nearest available seaports for India’s seven northeastern states are Kolkata and Haldia, both in West Bengal state and a long drive for trucks.
The Sittwe port project is expected to take three years to complete and to foster closer economic cooperation between Myanmar and India.

A senior official with Myanmar’s Ministry of Transport said the project will not only benefit northeast India but will also contribute to the development of Sittwe and the improvement of the Kitsapanadi/Kaladan river system.