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India, Myanmar and China are working to give this historic road a new lease on life. Repair of the road – some stretches of which are not motorable or simply don’t exist – is in progress. It is hoped that the three countries will soon decide to reopen it for trade and travel. 

A reopened Stilwell Road would provide a land link between two of the fastest-growing economies in the world – those of India and China. It would link two landlocked regions, India’s northeast and China’s Yunnan province. 

Goods from India’s northeast headed for China or Southeast Asian countries are currently shipped via Kolkata, the nearest port, through the Strait of Malacca and on to China. It takes at least a couple of weeks for goods to reach China. “If they go via the Stilwell Road our goods would reach Yunnan in two days,” Pradyut Bordoloi, Assam’s commerce and industries minister and an ardent advocate of reopening the road, told Asia Times Online. It would reduce transport costs by more than 30%. 

The Stilwell Road will link northeastern India not just with Yunnan but with other parts of China and Southeast Asia as well. The Chinese have constructed a network of roads connecting Yunnan with other provinces. “And there are roads branching out from the Stilwell Road that provide connectivity to Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and so on,” said Abhijit Barooah, chairman of the Confederation of Indian Industry. 

India’s northeastern region connects with Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar and China by a 4,500km international border but connects with India only through the Siliguri Corridor, a mere 22km wide. Ninety-eight percent of the northeast’s borders are with other countries, and only 2% with India. Yet this region’s trade with other countries is minuscule, limited to informal trade. While cross-border trade is almost non-existent, the northeast’s trade with the rest of India, which is done through the narrow Siliguri Corridor, has failed to take off. 

“If the border is opened up for overland trade with neighboring countries, the northeastern region would benefit. It could be pulled out of its current economic backwardness,” said Bordoloi. 

Barooah said, “Even if 10% of India’s shipment to China and Southeast Asia were to be routed through the Stilwell Road, its impact on the northeast would be dramatic.” 

Reopening the Stilwell Road would be beneficial to Myanmar, China and Southeast Asia as well. China has been eyeing India’s northeast as a potential market for its goods.