India’s Act East strategy got a real boost this week, and at its heart lies the missing rail link. The potential Delhi-Singapore rail network is now closer to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious new vision for trade in the region—and Myanmar can act as a pivot for India’s integration with Southeast Asia.
Modi’s 11th appearance at the 2024 ASEAN-India Summit in Vientiane was a milestone in the decades-long Act East Policy. The joint statement from Vientiane included, among many understandings, a declaration by members to enhance connectivity between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and India. According to the declaration, this would be in line with ‘Connecting the Connectivities’, an approach that seeks synergies between the Master Plan on ASEAN connectivity, the ASEAN Connectivity Strategic Plan, as well as the connectivity initiatives under India’s Act East Policy and the Security and Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR) policy. The parties also vowed to cooperate in land, air and maritime transport, including early completion and operationalisation of the India-Myanmar–Thailand Trilateral Highway (IMTT).
India and ASEAN’s physical connectivity initiatives, such as IMTT and the Trans-Asian Railway (TAR), could well stimulate India’s existing trade with the ASEAN region. The country’s trade with ASEAN, which stood at $71 billion in 2016-17, rose to $131 billion by 2022-23. Seamless transit for freight and passengers across the region could significantly elevate these figures. India’s Act East Policy could steer the countries crucial for intra-regional connectivity to focus on specific projects through financial, technical, and strategic cooperation.
Being at the crossroads but remaining disconnected is ironic but true in the case of Myanmar. The Trilateral Highway was considered to be one of the most concrete efforts in India’s Act East Policy. It was also easier to execute as it involved just the upgradation of existing roads and highways. However, work on various segments remains to be completed due to security and other reasons. As External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar put it at a recent event in Assam, practical solutions will have to be found to complete this “game changer” of an initiative.
India-Myanmar road connection
The 1,360 km-long IMTT will connect Moreh in Manipur with Mae Sot in Thailand via Myanmar. IMTT is being implemented under a grant, and includes some challenging construction projects. These involve the upgradation of 69 World War II-era bridges in the Tamu-Kalewa-Kyigone sector, and the upgradation 120 km Kalewa-Yargi section. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is supervising these projects.
The Indian government had announced in 2023 that about 70 per cent of the highway is complete, and that work on the remaining 30 per cent is stalled due to internal disturbances in Myanmar. Although conceptualised in 2002, the physical progress on IMTT could only begin around 2012. Its completion target, at this point, would entirely depend on Myanmar’s current security situation.
Apart from the IMTT, a multi-modal transit route was also considered in order to boost connectivity and benefit India, Myanmar and Bangladesh. The Kaladan Multimodal Transit Transport Project links Myanmar’s southeastern port, Sittwe, to Paletwa in the north through a 158-km waterway on the Kaladan River. Further, a 100 km road stretch connects Paletwa to Zorinpui in Mizoram, which lies on the India-Myanmar border.
While most of the infrastructure on this multimodal corridor is nearing completion, the work here has also been adversely impacted due to the internal security situation in Myanmar. This could be a good alternate route for goods bound for Northeast Indian states such as Mizoram, Manipur and Tripura. Moreover, it would help coastal shipping from India’s eastern ports reach Sittwe, from where it would continue inland via waterway and road. This would help avoid the longer Siliguri Corridor altogether.
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Boosting rail networks
Intra-regional rail connectivity fosters economic integration and prosperity in more ways than any other mode of transportation. Beneficial for long and heavy haul movements, railways can stimulate industrial growth, trade, manufacturing, tourism and people-to-people connectivity in faster, economical and environmentally-friendly ways. Rail connectivity has greatly benefitted intra-regional trade between Europe, Southeast Asia, and the land-locked economies of Central Asia.
ASEAN countries that were unable to establish an efficient through-rail corridor across South and West Asia are now looking at rail corridors on the Singapore-Kunming Rail Link (SKRL) through China and onwards to Europe to facilitate mutual trade.
It’s time for Asian nations to work together to make the Istanbul-Singapore and Delhi-Hanoi rail corridors operational at the earliest. On the Dhaka-Istanbul Freight Corridor, a physical rail network is now available. Its operationalisation, however, is held up due to geostrategic reasons. The Delh-Hanoi Corridor must establish connectivity with Myanmar through Indian Railways on the west and Thai Railways on the east. This, of course, comes in addition to the upgradation of Myanmar’s own railway infrastructure.
The regional rail integration of countries in the South and East of Asia was envisaged by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) about two decades ago. Countries on identified rail corridors also signed the TAR agreement to strengthen the same, including providing missing links. TAR identified three key corridors – Northern, Central and Southern. The Northern corridor, connecting Europe with East and Central Asia, was commissioned and operationalised a few years back.
The Southern Corridor would connect Kapikule (Turkey) to Singapore and pass through Iran, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. Sub-routes, connecting Myanmar with Kunming in China, were also proposed, integrating the corridor with SKRL. However, this corridor could not be operationalised except in small sections. Reasons assigned vary from financial, security, and technical considerations to bilateral agreements and disagreements. As a result, Myanmar and its railway network remain isolated – lacking connectivity with India, China and Thailand.
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Myanmar’s isolated rail network
Myanmar’s railway network is disconnected with the Indian railway network on its west, Thailand on its east, and China on its north and northeast. Myanmar railways have three major missing rail links for which feasibility studies have been conducted and neighbouring countries have shown keen interest for specific reasons of national and regional importance.
On the Indian side, the rail network is being extended at a fast pace in the Northeast. The Jiribam–Imphal rail line work is in progress, and a survey is underway to extend it to the border town of Moreh.
This last phase involves a project where a 110 km-railway line will be laid between Imphal and Moreh. A survey is also being finalised for a five km rail stretch linking Moreh (India) to Tamu (Myanmar). From Tamu to Kalay in Myanmar, a missing rail link of about 130 km is required to be constructed. Myanmar’s existing rail links have now been extended from Yangon to Dawei.
For linking other ASEAN countries further east, the southern city of Thanbyuzayat in Myanmar must be rail linked to the Three Pagoda Pass in Thailand. Although the missing link is only 120 km, it would involve the construction of major bridges.
Another possible rail link of similar length that is under consideration runs from Dawei deep sea port in Myanmar to Nam Tok in Thailand. This route is preferable due to better topography – which helps reduce construction costs and the distance to Bangkok.
China Railway is already undertaking many rail projects in the ASEAN region, connecting Kunming with major capitals. The high-speed rail link to Lao PDR is one such project. Long gestation, cost-intensive railway projects appear amenable to be developed under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) by many countries. Kunming-Laos is being considered as the Northern stretch of SKRL.
In the larger scheme, the Kunming (China)–Yangon (Myanmar) rail project would be in two phases, one from Kunming – Dali – Rueli (China) and the other from Muse – Lashio – Mandalay (Myanmar). Part of the ambitious China-Myanmar Economic Corridor, the rail network would also be upgraded for running high speed trains from Kunming to Yangon, providing China access to the Yangon and Sittwe ports.
Myanmar, thus, is pivotal for India-ASEAN connectivity – from both geostrategic and geoeconomic angles. India has been supporting Myanmar in a big way for its many projects, in building highways, supplying railway rolling stock, and more.
It’s a fact that India’s Act East policy would greatly depend on the connectivity of Myanmar, which integrates the region. India’s through-rail connectivity to the West, toward Iran and Afghanistan, is not operational despite physical connectivity primarily due to security and bilateral issues with Pakistan.
While India has supported the Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan railway projects in an unprecedented way, Myanmar requires a fresh look. And rail integration needs to be expedited through timely execution of connectivity related projects.
Physical connectivity continues to remain a challenge for the India-ASEAN relationship. Myanmar, standing at physical and historical crossroads, is crucial to integrating the Indian subcontinent with ASEAN.
Mohammad Jamshed is a Distinguished Fellow at CRF. Views are personal.
(Edited by Zoya Bhatti)