Myanmar News

Myanmar-India border road upgradation to complete by 2010

YANGON (Xinhua): The upgradation work of a Myanmar-India border road stretching as Kalewa-Kale-Tamu on the Myanmar side is targeted to complete by 2010, local media reported in this week's issue.

The 160-km Myanmar-India Friendship Road, built in 1999 by India's border road task force in cooperation with Myanmar and opened in February 2001, is being upgraded by Myanmar engineers and skilled workers of the two countries as some sections deteriorated, both the Biweekly Eleven News and the Voice said.

The border road, which forms an important link from the India- Myanmar border to central Myanmar and the commercial and cultural center of Mandalay, also constitutes part of the Asian highway and plays an important role for Myanmar in trading with India and member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations ( ASEAN).

The border road can withstand a load of 25 tons or 150 to 450 trucks, the media report said.

During the World War-II, the border road extending from India was part of a highway known as the Burma Road crossing into Myanmar's Tamu from India's Moreh and from Tamu the road leads to Monywa and Mandalay through Kalewa and Kale respectively.

Meanwhile, Myanmar has opened two border trade points with India, the first being Tamu in April 1995, while the second being Reedkhawdhar in January 2004. Myanmar and India share a border of over 1,600 km.