GUWAHATI: From 2016, if you are travelling from Guwahati to Imphal and Moreh, via Dimapur, by road, you will actually be driving on the Asian Highway (AH-1), which is a part of the India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway that will connect Moreh to Mae Sot in Thailand , via Mandalay and Yangon in Myanmar .

The road will be further linked to Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam .

The India-Myanmar-Thailand (IMT) road corridor is one of the highways of the Trans-Asian Highway network, comprising 1,41,000 km of roads passing through 32 member countries and being pursued by United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (UNESCAP). The network extends from Tokyo in the east to Kapikule, Turkey, in the west and from Torpynovka, Russian Federation, in the north, to Denpasar , Indonesia , in the south.

The crucial IMT Motor Vehicle Agreement (MVA), which will help seamless movement of cargo and passenger, including private vehicles, across borders, is scheduled to be signed during a proposed transport ministers-level meeting of three countries in Myanmar in November, 2015, and is expected to be operational in 2016.

A government spokesperson stated a meeting of the secretaries of transport of India, Myanmar and Thailand was held in Bangkok on July 13 and 14 for reaching a consensus on the signing and operationalization of the IMT MVA .

The AH-1 will start from Tokyo (connected by ferry) and run through Seoul, Beijing, Ho Chi Minh City, Phnom to Mae Sot, Yangon, Mandalay, Tamu, Moreh, Imphal, Kohima , Dimapur, Nagaon, Jorabat (Guwahati), Shillong , Dawki, Sylhet, Dhaka, Kolkata, Kanpur, New Delhi, Attari, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Kabul, Istanbul till the border of Bulgaria .

The northeastern part of the highway will be known as AH-2 if one is travelling from the Indonesian capital city of Denpasar to Jakarta , Singapore (connected by ferry), Bangkok, Mandalay, Tamu, Moreh, Imphal, Kohima, Dimapur, Nagaon, Jorabat (Guwahati), Shillong, Dawki, Sylhet, Dhaka, Siliguri, Kakarbhitta, Mahendranagar, New Delhi, Attari, Lahore, Quetta and Salafchegan ( Tehran ).

