(A) Connectivity:

There are several geographical and historical advantages as far as connectivity with South and South East Asia is concerned; viz.

1. Physical proximity of the countries to Assam is such that the aerial distances of most of the country capitals from Guwahati is less than or within comparable range of the aerial distance of Guwahati with major metropolitan centres of the country like Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai; and
2. There has been historical trade and connectivity links which got snapped at the time of independence and partition [as already mentionedin the Section on Historical Perspective], the most prominent among them being the Old Silk Route, the Stilwell Road, the Road to Mandalay-Rangoon (Yangon), the Railway Lines through Bangladesh to Mainland India, and the riverine route to Chittagong Port.

In order to capitalize on these advantages and establish diverse connectivity networks, the Govt. of Assam feels the necessity of the following:

1) Airways –

1. Establishment of Air Links with ASEAN & BBIN countries: Direct flights need to be introduced between the capitals of all ASEAN and BBIN countries and Guwahati, considering the proximity of these cities. The step, although initially may be economically viable in the short run, would reap rich connectivity and commercial dividends in the long run – if supported externally through VGF.
2. Extension of UDAN Scheme to ASEAN countries: The UDAN Scheme launched for regional air connectivity within India through subsidised air travel – needs to be extended to ASEAN countries within 2 hours of flying time. The matter has been taken up with the Ministry of Civil Aviation. In the meanwhile, the State Government has agreed to create a fund to support UDAN II with an initial corpus of 100 crores, which needs to be sustained by the Central Government
3. Developing Guwahati Airport into a Global Airport:In order to establish Guwahati as a regional commercial hub, we need to turn Guwahati LGB International Airport into a global airport with at least 200 Domestic/ International Flights. For that, the Guwahati Airport should have maintenance & repair and night parking facilities.
4. New Mega Airport for Guwahati: Since the capacity of the existing airport in Guwahati cannot be extended infinitely to cater to the expected increase in the number of flights, we need to construct another mega airport for Guwahati or develop a nearby airport.

(2) Roadways –

1. Development of Mainland India – Bangladesh – North East India (MI-B-NEI) Corridors: The development of such corridors – e.g.Agartala-Dhaka-Kolkata, Silchar-Dhaka-Kolkata and Shillong-Dhaka-Kolkata – are essential for easing out the traffic through the chicken-neck corridor. But for that the connecting internal roadways need to be improved to international standards
2. Development of Road Access to Chittagong Port: For ensuring smooth access to Chittagong Port, the 612 Km road from Guwahati to Chittagong via Shillong and Dawki need to developed as a 4 laned expressway. That requires 4 laning of the stretch from Shillong to Dawki, and Bangladesh has to be assisted for 4 laning of the stretch between Dawki and Chittagong.
3. Development of Road Access to South East Asia: The road access has to be developed on all feasible fronts. For that we need the early completion of the Asian Trilateral Highway as well as the reopening of the Stillwell Road up to Kunming. The connecting internal roadways need to be improved by the 4 Laning of the 401 Kms of NH 39 from Golaghat to Moreh, early completion of the East West Corridor from Doboka in Nagaon District to Silchar, and the 4 Laning of the road from Silchar to Moreh via Jiribam and Imphal.

3) Waterways –

1. Access to Chittagong/ Mongla Ports through Inland Waterways: The concerned ports of Bangladesh can be approached through the Brahmaputra River (NW 2), Barak River (NW 16) and other inland waterways. But for that, the dredging of Brahmaputra, Barak and Kushiyara rivers need to be completed to ensure perennial inland water connectivity to these ports. Besides, the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for Chittagong and Mongla ports needs to be expedited by Ministry of Shipping.
2. Development of Port Townships/ Hubs: In order to integrate the inland waterways into the overall trading mechanism, port townships/ hubs need to be developed on the Brahmaputra and the Barak Rivers with state-of-the-art jetties, warehouses, passenger facilities and civic amenities, other trading logistics, and connecting arterial roads to the ports.
3. Night Navigation Facilities on Brahmaputra: In order to optimally utilize the inland waterways, we need to ensure 24/7 X 365 movement of barges on the Brahmaputra River. But for that, we need to develop night navigation facilities on the river.
4. Early Completion of Kaladan Project: The Kaladan Multi-Modal River Waterway Project shall provide a link between North East India through Mizoram and the Chin State of Myanmar via the Kaladan River to the Sittwe Port. The technical and physical problems faced during the construction need to be worked out so as to ensure early completion of the project

(4) Railways –

1. Railway Connectivity to Border Towns: Indian Railways have already taken the initiative to link all the North Eastern States including Manipur, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh. The railway connectivity is needed to be extended to Moreh and other border towns, so as to facilitate large-scale border trade.
2. Railway Connectivity with Bangladesh: The railway line to Chittagong within Bangladesh traverses very close to the Agartala – Sebroom Railway Line within the Indian territory in Tripura. Therefore, that opens up several potential linkages between the two railway lines. In this regard, the 15 Km long Agartala – Akhaura Railway Line linking Indian Railways with Bangladesh Railways has already been initiated, and needs to completed soon. The project once completed would go a long way in restoring the region to its pre-partition connectivity with the outside world; because the linkage shall not only facilitate transit to Mainland India through Bangladesh, but also enable access to the Chittagong Port of Bangladesh.
3. Delhi-Hanoi Railway Link: The proposed railway link through Assam, Manipur, and then on to Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam needs to be upgraded from the conceptualization stage to the implementation stage. Because, China has already made a headway in this regard by starting to lay railway lines through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam to the ports thereof

5) Information-ways –

Digital Connectivity from Cox Bazar: India has only two landing stations of the International Sub-marine Fibre-optic Cable Network – viz. Mumbai and Chennai; both of which are far from North East India. But access can be made from the Cox Bazar Landing Station (CLS) of the Network in Bangladesh. It may be mentioned in this context that the International Gateway has been accessed by BSNL from its Cox Bazar terminal, and they have provided initial connectivity upto Agartala. However, due to high rentals of CLS [i.e. as high as 8 times more rental than at Chennai or Mumbai – the other two International Gateway terminals in the region], BSNL has not brought the bandwidth to Assam and other North Eastern States. North East India has a huge potential to become an ITES and IT hub, as almost 20% of the IT-based human resources of the entire country comes from this region. But the region is crippled because of poor bandwidth and speed. If Ministry of Commerce can consider supporting the rentals to BSNL for initial 2 years, then the region would be able to get the requisite high speed connectivity and bandwidth from CLS to become an IT hub – thereby bringing in large amount of exports from the region.

(B) Trade & Industry:

The Government of Assam would like to play an important role in boosting trade and industry in the region as part of the Act East Policy. In this context, it feels that some of the key components for intervention need to be as follows:

1. Lifting Restrictions on Trade: There are several restrictions on land border trade in the region – especially with Bangladesh, which shares a 1400 kilometres land border with Assam and Meghalaya. In other words, trading at any Border Trade Centre is restricted to a specific number of commodities only. Such restrictions on tradable items need to be lifted. Rather, we need to have a negative list of items which cannot be traded. Rest of the items need to be able to be traded freely. The matter has been pending over a long time and needs to be resolved at an early date. If the issue is sorted out, then the trade with Bangladesh is expected to see a quantum jump.
2. Review of the SAFTA Agreement: The SAFTA Treaty has quite adversely affected goods trade with Bangladesh, as the tariff structure imposed on the commodities are very high for export to Bangladesh. Either through bilateral mechanism or through the SAFTA review mechanism, the system needs to be rectified so that exports from this region can pick up.
3. Strengthen Border Trade Centres/ ICPs: The Border Trade Centres/ICPs need to be properly developed with provisions of basic minimum civic amenities therein, as well as facilities for seamless transportation, warehousing, telecommunications including data availability, ATM and Currency Exchange. The larger border trade centres like Sutarkandi and Moreh need to be upgraded to integrated border townships and river ports.
4. Signing of Motor Transport Agreements: In order to have seamless trade within the region, there needs to be free movement of trucks therein. For ensuring that, necessary Motor Transport Agreements and related MoUs need to be signed with countries of South East Asia – in line with the Motor Vehicles’ Agreement signed among the BBIN countries
5. Development of Logistics: As trade of North East India with countries of the ASEAN and BBIN blocs is being opened up through the river, air and land routes; there is a huge emerging need for the development of logistics. For example, the transportation of goods through the Brahmaputra River and other inland waterways needs river ports and warehouses etc. around these ports. Besides, the goods carriage on the road route needs logistics hubs and storages all alongside the highways concerned. Moreover, since Guwahati is being developed as an aviation hub, it would again need massive cargo amenities for movement of cargo. The development of logistics for trade thus needs proper planning and financial support from the Central Government.
6. Industrial Development of North Eastern Region: Without enhancing the productive capacity of the region, opening up of trade would only lead to rendering it as a source of raw materials and flooding it with foreign goods. Therefore, the Sixth Industrial Corridor of the country needs to be created stretching parallel to the Trilateral Highway upto the Moreh Border of Myanmar; and covering the States of Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Manipur. Besides, private investment in the region needs to be promoted in a big way.

(C) Tourism:

The Government of Assam feels that tourism is one of the natural corollaries of improved connectivity and infrastructure. North East India has a lot to offer on the tourism front – its forests and wildlife (being one of the Biodiversity Hotspots), blue hills and lush green valleys, picturesque tea gardens, river cruises [especially on the Brahmaputra and other major rivers], religious shrines of different faiths, prospects of adventure tourism and golf tourism, and also showcasing a unique diverse and multi-faceted culture. Medical tourism is another aspect of tourism that has tremendous prospects.
The State Government therefore feels that if projected properly in South and South East Asia, the region has the potentiality of attracting a large number of tourists from that region – similar to what Kunming and the Yunnan province has been able to do.

(D) PEOPLE-TO-PEOPLE RELATIONS:

In order to facilitate people-to-people contact between North East India and South and South East Asia, to reinvigorate the age-old cultural links, and to promote cultural exchanges; the following action points have been identified by the Government of Assam

1. Opening of the Consulates of all ASEAN countries in Guwahati: To facilitate easy movement of people between North East India and the countries of the ASEAN bloc, the consulates of all the ASEAN countries need to be opened in Guwahati. The Hon’ble Minister of External Affairs, Smti Sushma Swaraj, has assured to use her good offices for ensuring that.
2. Easy Visa Regime: Along with the opening of consulates, the existing Visa Regime needs to be simplified for ensuring freer movement of people, including introduction of provisions like visa-on-arrival. The necessity of Restricted Area Permit (RAP) required for coming to the North Eastern Region needs to be relaxed for ASEAN and BBIN countries
3. Recalibration of Foreign Policy: The foreign policy needs to be recalibrated to focus more on the South and South East Asian countries, with the eventual objective of having an entity like the European Union
4. Ties between Universities: In order to facilitate closer academic and technical collaboration, close ties need to be established between the leading Universities and Research Institutions of Assam and the leading Universities and Research Institutions of the ASEAN countries
5. Chapter of South Asian University in Assam: The South Asian University is located in New Delhi catering to students from across the bloc and specializing on topics related to it. Considering the uniqueness of the region, a chapter of the University need to be set up in Assam.
6. Deepening of Cultural Exchanges: The region of North East India is a confluence of races, genes, cultures, and religions; and has significant similarity with South and South East Asia. Therefore, cultural exchanges of North East with the countries of that region need to be deepened; and people to people contacts need to be enhanced.
7. Student Exchange Programmes: The youth is the future of any country or region, and both North East India and South East Asia has a large young population. Student Exchange Programmes need to be initiated on a larger scale to integrate the two regions.