Identifying hinge points

Since the NDA government came to power in May, it has upgraded India’s Look East Policy (LEP) to the ‘Act East Policy’ (AEP). Put in simple terms, LEP was designed in 1991 to reorient Indian foreign policy drive towards East Asia and Southeast Asia. But half-hearted commitment to the policy has severely restricted India’s footprint in these regions. AEP reflects a desire to correct this deficit in the face of increasing Chinese activity in the region.

For AEP to succeed, it is important to quickly identify the potential sites in the North-East region (NER) that may act as springboards from which the AEP may be launched. Thus, these would act as hinge-points for the AEP.

Within the NER, Assam occupies a central location with all other states ringed around and connected to the rest of India through it. It is also the strongest economically. Thus, both geography and economy dictates that Assam would play a large role in any such scenario – a hinge state vis-a-vis AEP. Hence, considering geography, accessibility and the economy the following cities may be considered s possible hinge-points- Guwahati, Silchar, Nagaon, Dibrugarh and Imphal.

Guwahati is the largest city and the gateway to North-East India. It is a major metropolis in India and one of the fastest growing cities in India. It is very well-connected to all regions of the north-East and houses the only international airport of the region. Silchar, on the south bank of Barak, is the district headquarters of Cachar, and occupies the central point of the Barak Valley region of Assam. The states of Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur, Meghalaya as well as Bangladesh are very close to it. Crucially, it lies at the on two major multinational corridors - the BCIM corridor between Kolkata and Kunming and the link path for the Kaladan Multimodal Transport network, both of which are an integral part of AEP. Moreover, Silchar is on the eastern end of India’s East-West highway corridor and lies on the Lakhipur- Bhanga National Waterway- 6 (NW-6). It, thus, is an important junction to this whole architecture.

Nagaon lies in the central region of the Brahpaputra Valley. It is situated on the East-West highway corridor which connects it to both to Guwahati and Silchar. It forms an important junction between Guwahati and Dibrugarh, at the far end of Brahmaputra Valley, which is the gateway to the Stilwell road. Therefore it forms an important junction.

Dibrugarh is the gateway to the Stilwell Road, which connects Ledo to Kunming in China via northern Myanmar – a particularly key route for the AEP. Once the Bogibeel Bridge is completed, Dibrugarh would also get direct access to the eastern end of the Trans Arunachal Highway. It acts as the gateway to the rich eastern Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. It is well connected by air, road and rail and is close to the easternmost end of the NW-6 and the Assam plains.

By: Homagni Bhattacharjee