Читать книгу Economic corridors in Asia : paradigm of integration? A reflection for Latin America - Varios autores - Страница 36

The proposed 1,360 km long trilateral highway envisaged in the year 2003 has been slow but the project would connect Myanmar, India and Thailand through the towns of Moreh, India with Mae Sot, Thailand via Myanmar to boost trade and commerce under the coverage of the ASEAN-India Free Trade Area (The Hindu Business Line, 2018). This project has been nearly completed with few road sections and bridges needing to be completed, those different sections of the roads are now being completed with India’s financial assistance and support from international financial institutions. The major challenge for this trilateral highway network has been the movement of road building equipment and the problems in the topography and terrain.

‘With the financial constraints faced by the other two countries –Myanmar and Thailand, India is undertaking construction of two sections of the Trilateral Highway in Myanmar namely,

1. Construction of 120.74 KM Kalewa-Yagyi road section, and

2. Construction of 69 bridges along with the approach road on the 149.70 KM Tamu-Kyigone-Kalewa (TKK) road section’ (insightsonindia.com, 2019).

The construction of these sections has been given on the basis of engineering, procurement and construction modes in May 2018 for the Kalewa-Yagyi section, and November 2017 for the TKK section. It is expected that by 2020 the two sections will be completed and thereby connecting India with the production centers of these two countries. The genesis of the Mekong India Economic Corridor is based on the larger foundation of this trilateral Highway (insightsonindia.com, 2019). The estimated cost of the projects are 145.929 million Rupees for the Kalewa-Yagyi road project and Rs. 37.158 million for the 69 Bridges on the TKK road project (Rajya Sabha, 2018). The trilateral highway project is also critical for the Mekong India Economic Corridor as it would connect regional value chains existing in Myanmar and Thailand with Indian production centers spread across the country.