China’s hand seen in Myanmar’s insurgent group targeting India-backed Kaladan project

Hundustan Time

Rezaul H Laskar | Edited by Sparshita Saxena
Hindustan Times, New Delhi
Updated: Oct 26, 2020,

File photo: Workers seen on the Indian side of the Kaladan project at Lawngtlai in Mizoram.(HT Photo)
 

 The Arakan Army, an insurgent group whose activities have severely affected the India-backed Kaladan multi-modal transport project in Myanmar, has benefited from the clandestine transfer and smuggling of Chinese-made weaponry, people familiar with developments said on Monday.

The group, designated a terrorist organisation by Naypyitaw, clashed with Myanmarese troops on nearly 600 occasions last year, and a majority of the skirmishes occurred in close proximity to the $480-million Kaladan project.

Kaladan project’s port and river terminal completed

MYANMAR TIMES

Chan Mya Htwe  

12 Jul 2019

Rakhine ethnic people sit in their moored boats on the Kalander River near Sittwe Market in Sittwe, Rakhine State. Photo - EPA

The construction of Sittwe’s sea-port and the inland water terminal in Paletwa has been completed, the Indian embassy said in a July 9 statement in Yangon.
The sea-port and water terminal forms part of the US$484 million Kaladan multi-modal transit transport project that would link Kolkata in India to Sittwe in Rakhine State and then link Sittwe via a river route to Paletwa in Chin State and from Paletwa by road to Zorinpui in India’s northeastern state of Mizoram.

As Smart as Sittwe: Going North-East by South-East

Firstpost
C Christine Fair Apr 19, 2019 

The Chabahar port in Iran that opened for business at the end of 2018 has been hailed as a big strategic success for India. It is the first time India is operating a port outside its borders, but it is not the only time it will do so. India is about to commence operations in another deep-water port — this time on the eastern front — it built in Sittwe, in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine province. 

This Sittwe port that I visited late last year is part of the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project which is as important, if not more, as Chabahar. When completed, the project will facilitate transit between India’s northeastern states and Kolkata Port, bringing down India’s dependence on the vulnerable Siliguri Corridor, the so-called Chicken’s Neck.