KOLKATA – India has seized the initiative to reopen for cross-border trade a historic road linking its northeastern region to Myanmar and China.

This week federal junior Commerce Minister Jairam Ramesh handed a sack of salt to a Myanmar army officer at Pansaung where the Stilwell Road enters Myanmar territory, heralding what he described as a new chapter in trade and commerce with neighbouring countries.

The 1700km Stilwell Road was built during World War II by Allied and Chinese troops under the command of US General Joseph Stilwell to link up with the 1257km Myanmar Road into China.

The Stilwell Road ran from Ledo in Assam to Myitkyina in Myanmar, from where the Myanmar Road ran to Kunming in China’s Yunnan province.

The first supplies to the beleaguered Chinese Army fighting the Japanese onslaught travelled the whole route in February 1945.

Mr Ramesh is pulling out all stops to revive the road to speed economic and social integration between India’s northeast and ASEAN countries.

The commerce ministry wants to reopen the route by 2010, Mr Ramesh said while inaugurating the international trade centre at Nampong, the last Indian town on the Stilwell Road. “I have spoken to (foreign minister) Pranab Mukherjee on reopening the trade route through Pansaung,” he said.

The local people are eager to see the Stilwell Road reopened for trade as soon as possible. All the northeastern chief ministers, too, have requested (prime minister) Mr Manmohan Singh to reopen the route. Arunachal Pradesh hopes it will boost timber export and revive the state’s once-thriving wood industry.

The people of the northeast originated in southwest China, Laos, Thailand Myanmar and Vietnam. Guwahati, the capital of Assam and the hub of the northeast, is 1500km from Kalcutta, 2500km from New Delhi and more from Bombay and Madras. Mandalay and Yangon are closer than Calcutta, and even Kunming and Bangkok are not far away.

“The Gateway of India in Bombay faces west. It is time to build another gateway at Ledo, looking east, symbolising a reunion with the past yet heralding the future and a great new beginning,” Chief Minister of Assam Tarun Gogoi said.

“There is real potential here. We are keen to use Myanmar for channelling exports to the ASEAN region using the [projected] trans-ASEAN rail network linking Myanmar to Thailand and Laos, and through these countries Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam,” he said.

Economists say India’s northeast can become a part of the emerging powerhouse the Chinese have begun to call the Great Golden Triangle, stretching from Yunnan to Singapore. – Khaleej Times