With reference to India’s projects on connectivity, consider the following statements:
- East-West Corridor under Golden Quadrilateral Project connects Dibrugarh and Surat.
- Trilateral Highway connects Moreh in Manipur and Chiang Mai in Thailand via Myanmar.
- Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Economic Corridor connects Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh with Kunming in China.
How many of the above statements are correct?
- Only one
- Only two
- All three
- None
Explanation
Statement 1 is incorrect
- Golden Quadrilateral is a network of highways connecting India’s four top metropolitan cities, namely Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, thereby forming a quadrilateral. The project was launched in 2001 as part of the National Highways Development Project (NHDP). The East-West Corridor links Porbandar (Gujarat) in the west to Silchar (Assam) in the east. This corridor connects 7 states – Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, and Assam.
Statement 2 is incorrect
- The India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway is a 1,360 km long route under construction, connecting Moreh (Manipur), India, with Mae Sot, Thailand, via Myanmar. The IMT highway is part of India’s Look East policy and aims to boost trade and commerce in the ASEAN–India Free Trade Area and Southeast Asia. India has proposed extending the highway to Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, forming the ~3,200 km East-West Economic Corridor. The E-W Economic Corridor between Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam became operational in 2015.
Statement 3 is incorrect
- The 2800 km BCIM corridor was proposed to link Kunming in China’s Yunnan province with Kolkata, passing though nodes such as Mandalay in Myanmar and Dhaka in Bangladesh before heading to Kolkata. China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC) is the newest of the six land corridors under the BRI, and has assumed prominence in place of the Bangladesh China India Myanmar (BCIM) corridor which has largely stalled.
