Burma general arrives

By OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

New Delhi, April 1: India and Burma are expected to sign an agreement on the Kaladan multi-modal project during the five-day visit of Vice-Senior General Maung Aye.

Gen. Maung Aye will arrive in New Delhi on Wednesday. He will call on President Pratibha Devisingh Patil at Rashtrapati Bhavan and hold talks with vice-president Hamid Ansari and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The signing of agreements will take place on Wednesday evening. Minister of external affairs Pranab Mukherjee and Chief of Army Staff General Deepak Kapoor will call on the Burmese General during the day. On Thursday Leader of the Opposition L.K. Advani will call on Gen. Maung Aye. He will spend the next two days in Bhopal, Sanchi, Jamnagar, Bangalore, Varanasi, Sarnath and Gaya. He will leave Gaya on Sunday for Nay Pyi Taw.

The Kaladan multi-modal project will include the development of Sittwe port and construction of a road linking Kalewa in Burma’s Sagaing division to the border town of Moreh in the northeastern Indian state of Mizoram. The Union Cabinet on March 27 approved the Rs 535.91-crore multi-modal transit transport project in Burma, which India will use for improving access to the northeastern states. The Union Cabinet sanctioned the funds under the "Aid to Myanmar" project for the upgradation of Sittwe Port and Kaladan waterway.