T P Venu
It has taken 75 years for Assam to rise once again as though it was in a forced hibernation. The North East and Assam in particular was a bustling region with merchants and traders criss-crossing the terrain from Southeast Asia even 150 years ago. Brahmaputra Valley had a well-established trade connection via roads, rail, inland waterways and seas. Call it fate, political apathy or turn of events in the geo- political drama of the late 1940s. A year after Indian Independence, Myanmar too became free that led to North eastern region becoming landlocked as natural transportation routes were cut off. The North east became a pale shadow of its former self. The region could not integrate and forge ties with neighbouring countries that were collaborating in trade and commerce.
While the link to the Southeast Asia severed, the connection with mainland India was subjected to the small corridor known as ‘chicken’s neck’ near Siliguri. Assam’s became a prisoner of geography and the major part of post Independent India, the region was engulfed in ethnic strife. Assam was beginning to be associated with shortage of trains, bomb blasts, landslides and floods but in the last few years, the state is grabbing national headlines and is now known for rapid development, connectivity, hope and growth.
The India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway project is aimed at opening the gate to South East Asia. The highway will run from Manipur’s Moreh town to Mae Sot in Thailand through Myanmar. The connectivity from Assam to Manipur is improving by the day. Simultaneously, strengthening the inland waterways, rail and air network is gaining traction. For the first time in history, three rail bridges are available for two different circles at Pancharatna, Saraighat and Dhemaji-Dibrugarh connecting the north and south banks of River Brahmaputra.
The sobriquet ‘Gateway to the East’ is not given for nothing. The world’s economies China, Taiwan, South Korea, Australia and ASEAN countries lie in the Asia-Pacific and collectively account for over 80 per cent of the global GDP. The Union Government’s emphasis from merely ‘Look East’ to ‘Act East’ is finding utterance.
No other Indian Prime Minister during his or her tenure visited Assam so many times as Narendra Modi ji. 44 times to the last count. The French poet and novelist Victor Hugo had said, “Nothing else in the world, not all the armies are as powerful as an idea whose time has come.” Assam’s time has come!