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2 Political obstacles on the road to
riches By Sudha Ramachandran
BANGALORE - A road named after an American
general who oversaw its construction at the height
of World War II has the potential to bring India
and China closer together. Running from India's
northeast through Myanmar to southwestern China's
Yunnan province, the 1,736-kilometer Stilwell
Road, if reopened, would boost overland trade and
travel between India and China and also pull the
regions it connects out of poverty.
India,
Myanmar and China are working to give this
historic road a new lease on life. Repair of the
road - some stretches of which are
not
motorable or simply don't exist - is in progress.
It is hoped that the three countries will soon
decide to reopen it for trade and travel.
A reopened Stilwell Road would provide a
land link between two of the fastest-growing
economies in the world - those of India and China.
It would link two landlocked regions, India's
northeast and China's Yunnan province.
Goods from India's northeast headed for
China or Southeast Asian countries are currently
shipped via Kolkata, the nearest port, through the
Strait of Malacca and on to China. It takes at
least a couple of weeks for goods to reach China.
"If they go via the Stilwell Road our goods would
reach Yunnan in two days," Pradyut Bordoloi,
Assam's commerce and industries minister and an
ardent advocate of reopening the road, told Asia
Times Online. It would reduce transport costs by
more than 30%.
The Stilwell Road will link
northeastern India not just with Yunnan but with
other parts of China and Southeast Asia as well.
The Chinese have constructed a network of roads
connecting Yunnan with other provinces. "And there
are roads branching out from the Stilwell Road
that provide connectivity to Thailand, Cambodia,
Vietnam and so on," said Abhijit Barooah, chairman
of the Confederation of Indian Industry.
India's northeastern region connects with
Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar and China by a 4,500km
international border but connects with India only
through the Siliguri Corridor, a mere 22km wide.
Ninety-eight percent of the northeast's borders
are with other countries, and only 2% with India.
Yet this region's trade with other countries is
minuscule, limited to informal trade. While
cross-border trade is almost non-existent, the
northeast's trade with the rest of India, which is
done through the narrow Siliguri Corridor, has
failed to take off.
"If the border is
opened up for overland trade with neighboring
countries, the northeastern region would benefit.
It could be pulled out of its current economic
backwardness," said Bordoloi.
Barooah
said, "Even if 10% of India's shipment to China
and Southeast Asia were to be routed through the
Stilwell Road, its impact on the northeast would
be dramatic."
Reopening the Stilwell Road
would be beneficial to Myanmar, China and
Southeast Asia as well. China has been eyeing
India's northeast as a potential market for its
goods.
The Stilwell Road begins in Ledo, a
small town in the Indian state of Assam. It weaves
through thick jungles, then crosses Jairampur and
Nampong in Arunachal Pradesh to reach the Pangsau
Pass, after which it crosses into Myanmar. It then
plunges through the jungles of upper Myanmar to
touch Myitkyina before heading eastward to China,
where it culminates at Kunming, the capital of
Yunnan province. About 61km of the Stilwell Road
runs through India, 1,035km through Myanmar and
640km into China.
Named after General
Joseph Stilwell (1883-1946), who commanded the
Allied forces in the India-Burma-China theater
during World War II, the Stilwell Road was
constructed by Indian soldiers, Chinese laborers
and American engineers. It was a vital lifeline
for the Allies during the war, as it was through
this road that supplies were sent to the Chinese
battling Japanese occupation.
But within a
few months of its opening, the Japanese
surrendered and the war ended. After the war, the
road fell into disuse.
But the road has a
history that goes back several centuries before
Stilwell and others arrived on the scene, as it
was originally the
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