(This article is part of our special package on Myanmar. Read more articles here.)
An Indian army colonel posted in Mizoram was arrested for complicity in a case of smuggling 52 gold bars estimated to be worth INR 14.5 crore (USD 2.1 million) from Myanmar in May 2016. This incident drew attention to the illegal transport of goods, weapons, and the almost unregulated border along what was once known as National Highway 39, now a part of the rechristened Asian Highway 1. These dark tales of illegal trade can with a single imaginative change of policy of the governments of the two countries be transformed into a thriving legal trade, bringing in valuable duties for both countries, along with the usual stories of general well-being that successful commercial activity brings to a wide spectrum of people.
The ground is being prepared in earnest for such a transformation and the 1400-kilometre highway, which will begin at Moreh and Tamu, the two neighbouring border townships along the India-Myanmar border in Manipur, and culminate at Tak in the Mae Sot district of Thailand, is set to become operational in another two years.
