North East by sea

Guwahati, June 30 (UNI) Voyage to North East by sea! Sounds weird but it may soon become a reality if the Union Commerce Ministry has its way.

To reduce the dependendce on Bangladesh, the Commerce ministry has embarked on an effort to open a little known sea route through Myanmar-Mizoram border.

There is a small river named Kaladon which comes out of Mizoram and meander through Myanmar to assimilate in the Bay of Bengal.

''We have also proposed to navigate Kaladon river in Mizoram in order to open up the river route to the Northeast'' said Union Commerce Minister Jairam Ramesh, who was here recently to promote tea.

In fact the ministry has already embarked upon the ambitious project to develop Sittwe port in Burma to open up the sea route connecting the Northeast in Mizoram.

Mr Ramesh added: ''This will not only reduce our reliability on Bangladesh for a water passage to the Northeast, but also boost economic activities in the landlocked north-eastern states.'' The Union commerce ministry will be investing 103 million dollars in the project.

There is a river route through Bangladesh but that is not very practical for steady commerce as the Bangladesh government is not very enthusiastic. Further the shallow river bed of Brahmaputra also does not allow movement of very large vessels.

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