Kaladan Project’s planned two-year timeline prompts discussion of Arakan Army’s role

To follow their operational timeline for a construction project in Rakhine and Chin states, Indian officials may need to secure cooperation from the Arakan Army (AA), the ethnic armed group that controls much of the project area. Among other goals, the planned Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project (KMTTP or Kaladan Project) will develop routes connecting the Rakhine State capital, Sittwe, with the northeastern Indian State of Mizoram. With the AA controlling much of the Kaladan River as well as Chin State’s Paletwa Township, bordering Mizoram, India’s implementation of the project will likely depend on the powerful ethnic armed group’s consent and assistance. A bilateral cooperation agreement reached by India and Myanmar in 2008, during the previous military dictatorship under Sen-Gen Than Shwe, included provisions for India to invest US $160 million in developing ports in Sittwe and Paletwa on the Kaladan River, and US $324 million in constructing roads between Paletwa and the Indian border. While the ports in Sittwe and Paletwa are completed and ready to operate, roads are still under construction and slated to be ready for full use by 2027, according to a statement released on July 8 by the Indian government’s Ministry of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways. However, the AA has been fighting the Myanmar military for control of Rakhine State and neighbouring parts of Chin State since late 2023, gaining control over Chin State’s Paletwa Township, 14 of Rakhine State’s 17 townships, and territory along the Kaladan River. For the KMTTP to proceed on schedule, Indian investors and officials will have to negotiate with the AA and its political wing, the United League of Arakan (ULA), according to veteran Rakhine State politician Pe Than. “If transportation operations are to begin as planned, after leaving Sittwe they will have to cross through AA-controlled areas all the way to Paletwa on the Indian border,” Pe Than said. “So, it will only work with AA/ULA's permission. They cannot avoid negotiating with them.” “From another perspective, I don't think the AA has any interest in blocking the Kaladan Project, mainly because of regional development and reduced prices of transportation,” he added. “From the AA/ULA’s side, they can open official trade gates and collect tolls and taxes, which would be convenient for them.” As planned, the transport project would connect the port of Kolkata in India’s West Bengal to Sittwe by sea, and would connect the port of Sittwe with the northeastern Indian state of Mizoram by way of the Kaladan River and overland highways, according to an environmental impact assessment submitted by the Myanma Port Authority to the Myanmar’s junta-controlled Ministry of Environmental Conservation in July 2023. The project will entail construction in five townships on the Kaladan River in Rakhine State—Sittwe, Ponnagyun, Pauktaw, Mrauk-U, and Kyauktaw—as well as Chin State’s Paletwa Township. All of these townships except for Sittwe are currently under AA control. The Sittwe Port, located in Rakhine State’s junta-controlled capital, was opened for operations in 2023 by the junta’s transport and communications minister Gen. Tin Aung San and India’s minister of ports, shipping and waterways Shri Sarbananda Sonowal. Graphic from the Myanma Port Authority’s 2023 environmental impact assessment report on KMTTP, mapping the phases of the planned project. The Burmese text delineates the route of the project through five townships along the Kaladan River in Rakhine State, Chin State’s Paletwa Township, and the state of Mizoram across the India-Myanmar border. (Image: Myanma Port Authority) Because of the junta’s continued control of Sittwe, it will not be possible for Indian authorities to work with authorities on only one side of the conflict, according to Salai Dokhar, a representative of the organisation India For Myanmar. “For this project to actually operate, India needs to coordinate smoothly with the junta, AA/ULA, and Chin groups. They are separately coordinating with each group that needs to be negotiated with,” he explained. “If our resistance forces were united as one, India could coordinate in just one place and finish quickly.” The Myanmar military regime’s role in the project, initially planned as a bilateral friendship initiative, has now come into question, according to Salai Dokhar, noting the opportunity for mutual political and economic benefits if the anti-junta groups controlling most of the project area are included as recipients of trade-related taxes. “I think it depends on how decisively India can negotiate. It depends a lot on how the Indian government can deal with the AA,” he added. Despite the completion of some construction, conflict and other factors have put the project behind schedule since its inception in 2008. Road construction is ongoing and upgrades and repairs may be needed for some completed bridges and sections of road, according to a combat veteran from Paletwa now living in Mizoram. It is unclear how negotiations will proceed with the junta still in control of Sittwe, he acknowledged, but he noted that Indian officials had been in contact with the AA/ULA since the group captured and installed its own administrative apparatus in Paletwa Township. “When it was captured, workers who had been employed on the Kaladan project and other projects returned. After the capture, India got the AA’s permission to work freely on road construction between Paletwa and India without interference,” he said. In March 2024, members of the Mizoram State Assembly convened with AA/ULA representatives at the Chin State-Mizoram border to discuss the road being built to connect Paletwa with the towns in eastern Mizoram State as part of the KMTTP. AA fighters at the Ayeyarwady Region-Rakhine State border with armoured vehicles seized from junta forces this year (Photo: AA/ULA) Construction on one section of the road, which had begun in 2018, was suspended in 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic and conflict in the region. The Myanmar junta restarted it in early 2023 before suspending it again due to fighting in Chin State, and construction finally resumed again after the AA/ULA took control of Paletwa Township. Having lost territory, Myanmar’s military is no longer able to guarantee security in the project area, the war veteran noted, but the military will still have influence over how the project proceeds as long as it controls Sittwe. "If they cannot provide security, since India has decided to construct this road at all costs, they will negotiate with the relevant responsible authorities, which currently means the AA/ULA,” he said, adding. “I don't think they can have faith in the junta either. However, they have to deal with them as needed.” Although the project is not yet complete, he noted, goods are already moving on the Kaladan River route from Mizoram State's Lawngtlai District, which borders Paletwa Township, through to northern Rakhine State. This trade route is increasingly important for Rakhine State, which has been suffering from severe shortages of essential goods due to the junta’s blockades of roads and waterways from other parts of Myanmar. Myanmar Now tried to reach India's Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, the Indian Embassy in Yangon, and AA spokesperson Khaing Thukha with queries about the status and timetable of the Kaladan Project, potential negotiations between Indian officials and anti-junta ethnic armed groups but has not yet received any response. Whatever negotiations may be necessary with anti-junta forces controlling territory in the project area, it is clear that Indian authorities have kept open their lines of communication with the Myanmar junta. Lt-Gen Shrinjay Pratap Singh, India’s deputy chief of the integrated defence staff, met with the Myanmar military council’s deputy chief Vice-Sen-Gen Soe Win in Naypyitaw on July 16 of this year to discuss enhancing bilateral military cooperation and matters of security on the India-Myanmar border, according to a junta statement.

Kaladan Project’s planned two-year timeline prompts discussion of Arakan Army’s role

A veteran Rakhine State politician argues that India’s investment in the infrastructure project will compel them to work with the anti-junta groups like the Arakan Army (AA), which currently controls Chin State’s Paletwa Township and territory along the banks of the Kaladan River

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