Sittwe port to provide major fillip to trade in northeast IndiaIndias Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways and AYUSH Sarbananda Sonowal and Myanmars Deputy Prime Minister and Union Minister for Transport & Communications Admiral Tin Aung San jointly inaugurated the Sittwe Port in Rakhine State, Myanmar recently. It is the first Indian cargo ship that was flagged off from Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port in Kolkata. This project was conceptualized to provide an alternative connectivity of Mizoram with Haldia / Kolkata / any Indian ports through Kaladan River in Myanmar. The project envisages highway / road transport from Mizoram to Paletwa (Myanmar), thereafter from Paletwa to Sittwe (Myanmar) by Inland Water Transport (IWT) and from Sittwe to any port in India by maritime shipping.There will be 50 per cent reduction in cost & time of transportation of goods between Kolkata and Agartala and Aizwal with the development of Sittwe Port. With this project northeast India is set to become gateway to Southeast Asia. Sittwe Port has been developed as a part of the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project (KMTTP) funded under grant in aid assistance from Government of India. Once fully operationalized the waterway and road components of KMTTP will link the East coast of India to the North-eastern states through the Sittwe port.