The planned three-lane highway would run south from the eastern India border town of Moreh through Myanmar and reach the Thai border at the Mae Sot Friendship Bridge. The highway is 1,400kms long.
The historic route already exists and it is possible to drive it at present. One of the principal drawbacks is that more than 70 bridges in Myanmar were built in WWII and are not suited to modern-day traffic.
ADB director for India, Yasushi Negishi, noted that as India had agreed to provide the funds to upgrade the bridges this obstacle would soon be consigned to history. ADB officials say the inauguration of a Thailand-Myanmar-India highway would be a boon for trade between the nations.
They also noted that the road would allow bus operators to launch scheduled overland services. 12GO ASIA sells tickets for bus services on routes throughout Thailand. When the trans-Asian highway project comes to fruition we will endeavour to add this to our collection.
Asian Development Bank backs Thailand Myanmar India highway
News in Asia
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) recently announced its support for a trans-Asian highway that will link Thailand and India. An ADB envoy explained that discussions were ongoing and a final decision on the implementation of the tri-nation route will be announced in 2017.