YANGON, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Vice-Chairman of the Myanmar StatePeace and Development Council (SPDC) Vice Senior-General Maung Ayewill pay an official visit to India in the near future, said an official announcement from Nay Pyi Taw Sunday without specifying the date of his visit.
Expected in a few days, the visit of Maung Aye, who is also Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Defense Services and Commander-in-Chief of the Army, will be his second since 2000.
Invited by Indian Vice-President Mohammad Hamid Ansari, Maung Aye's forthcoming visit, which also comes more than three years after that to New Delhi by Myanmar's SPDC Chairman Senior-General Than Shwe in 2004, is expected to be highlighted by the signing ofa 130 million U.S. dollars' Kaladan multi-modal transport project to provide alternate route for transporting goods to North East India bypassing Bangladesh, according to an earlier report of Indian press media PTI.
In early January this year, Myanmar Foreign Minister U Nyan Winalso visited India and made consultation on the project. The project was further covered by a talk in March between Myanmar Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Brigadier-General Phone Swe and Indian Union Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta during their 14th roundof annual home secretary-level meeting between the two countries held in New Delhi.
The Kaladam multi-modal river transportation project, which also involves the building of the Paletwa border road, was raised during Indian President APJ Abdul Kalam's state visit to Myanmar in March 2006 with the Indian side being committed to extend a 10 million U.S. dollars' line of credit for the project.
The Kaladam project will cover upgrading of waterways along the Kaladam River and Sittway port in Western Myanmar's Rakhine state.
Besides, the project will also cover upgrading of both motor roads and waterways in those parts in northwestern Chin state to enable Indian cargo vessels along the Kaladam river in Sittway's eastern bank to berth at Paletwa where a high-standard port is to be built through which a highway will also be built to enable access to the border area of Myeikwa in the state for commodity flow to India's Mizoram state.
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