Express Focus -- ASSAM -- by Indian Express

When this road was constructed way back in 1942, it considerably helped the cause of World War II, which changed the shape of the world we live in today. But hardly did General Joseph Stilwell realise then that the same road could be considered as one that has the potential to change the economy of India’s land-locked Northeastern region six decades later.

‘‘This is the road that can bring drastic economic change for good for the Northeastern region,’’ said Assam Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, while speaking at the premier show of a film The Stilwell Road Revisited recently.
The 30-minute documentary not only recounts the history of this 1,079-mile long road linking Ledo in Upper Assam to Kunming in China, but also tells how it can help boost economic activity in this part of the world.

In fact, when repaired and reopened, it will also directly link New Delhi, Dhaka, Calcutta, Kathmandu and Thimphu to Beijing by road, thus making it the real Asian Highway. The road begins from Lekhapani on the outskirts of the sleepy coal township of Ledo in Assam, traverses the thick jungles of Arunachal Pradesh, crosses the Indo-Myanmar border at Pangsau Pass, goes on to the Myanmarese towns of Mytkyina, Bhamo, Muse, Ruili and Dali into Kunming in China.

It was the Kunming Initiative organised by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Kunming in mid-1999 that gave an international status to the decade-old campaign for reopening the Stilwell Road and making it the highway to prosperity for the entire region covering India’s Northeast, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Southeastern China.

The film, directed by Tulu Patnaik for Images Inc, a Delhi-based TV production company, takes the audience on an adventure on this ‘‘marvel of engineering’’ called Stilwell Road through hills and jungles into the prosperity that the once war-ravaged districts of Southeast China and North-west Myanmar are today.
‘‘When reopened, the Stilwell Road will open India’s doors to the booming east,’’ said Mahanta, who has already initiated steps to hold an international seminar titled the Guwahati Initiative here later next month to highlight the investment and export potential of the Northeastern region.

The 60-year-old road, however, is in a dilapidated condition at several stretches. Built literally on a war footing to facilitate a fast military approach to Southern China for the Allied Forces in the early part of the World War II, the road is heavy with history.

‘‘We want to attract world attention towards this road that directly links three countries, India, China and Myanmar, apart from linking up Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan,’’ said Mahanta, who has himself undertaken several trips on this road along with his counterparts from other Northeastern states. Several portions of the road are now not in existence due to vagaries of nature, says the film. But in several portions, especially after it enters China, it has been already converted into a six-lane express highway.