New Delhi: In a landmark infrastructural push, the railway link between Gelephu in Bhutan and Kokrajhar in Assam is poised to transform the economic and strategic landscape of India’s Northeast. The project is central to integrating the resource-rich yet logistically challenged northeastern region of India comprising the Seven Sister states — Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, and Arunachal Pradesh – into the national grid and regional trade circuits.
Its significance is magnified by geopolitical commentary, notably from Bangladesh interim government Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus, who recently remarked in China about the region's status as landlocked and its reliance on Bangladesh's maritime infrastructure. Against this backdrop, the new rail corridor not only promises enhanced connectivity but also serves as a strategic countermeasure, reducing reliance on maritime transit and potentially rebalancing regional trade dynamics.
"The seven states of India, the eastern part of India, are called the seven sisters," a video that went viral on social media showed Yunus as saying during an economic summit during his visit to China last month. "They are a landlocked region of India. They have no way to reach out to the ocean."
He referred to Bangladesh as the "guardian of the ocean" for India’s northeastern region. This sparked anger in India, cutting across political party lines.
Taking to his X handle on April 1, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma stated that the statement made by Yunus "is offensive and strongly condemnable".
"This remark underscores the persistent vulnerability narrative associated with India's strategic ‘Chicken’s Neck’ corridor," Sarma stated. Then, earlier this month, India withdrew the trans-shipment facility that was extended to Bangladesh that allowed goods from its eastern neighbour to pass through Indian territory to international ports.
The facility, once a lifeline for swift exports to destinations like Nepal, Bhutan and beyond, was terminated leaving exporters scrambling to reroute shipments and absorb soaring costs. With global buyers demanding punctual deliveries and competitive pricing, Bangladesh's apparel manufacturers are sounding the alarm over potential order losses and shrinking profit margins.
India introduced the transhipment facility through an order on June 29, 2020, allowing Bangladeshi goods to be transported to third countries using Indian territory. From January 2024 to March 2025, in a span of 15 months, Bangladesh exported garments worth around $462 million to 36 countries using Indian road transit. However, the Indian Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs cancelled the order on April 8, leading to a halt to such shipments.
The revocation has disrupted established trade routes, forcing Bangladeshi exporters to seek alternative, often more expensive, routes. Exporters now face higher air freight rates and longer transit times, affecting their competitiveness in the global market. India’s sudden move has blocked one of the key transit options for urgent exports to the Middle East and Western markets from Bangladesh.
And now, in an interesting development, the much anticipated 69.04-kilometre cross-border railway project connecting Gelephu to Kokrajhar station in Assam, India, is being integrated into the development blueprint of the Himalayan kingdom’s Gelephu Mindfulness City (GMC) project.
The GMC authority is coordinating with both the Royal Government of Bhutan and Indian counterparts to align the railway project with the city’s infrastructure and economic plans.
"The railway project has been reviewed to support GMC’s infrastructure and logistics plans, ensuring its integration with the city’s trade and economic ecosystem," Bhutanese news portal Kuensel quoted a GMC official as saying.
The GMC project envisages connectivity of Bhutan with South and Southeast Asia and the Bay of Bengal region. The announcement of the project by Bhutan’s King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck during his address on the occasion of his country’s National Day in December 2023 coincided with the concurrent development of the railway line linking Kokrajhar in Assam with Gelephu. The ₹35-billion project, a result of discussions between King Wangchuck and Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the former’s visit to Delhi earlier that year, signifies a historic milestone in rail connectivity between the two nations.
"The railway will be a key enabler for GMC’s medium to long-term economic growth and regional connectivity," the Kuensel report quoted the GMC official as saying.
The Gelephu-Kokrajhar railway line project is not only set to boost regional economic integration and improve logistics, but it also reconfigures the strategic landscape of northeastern India. The new rail line represents a proactive step towards reducing regional dependence on external maritime gateways, enhancing both economic prospects and strategic autonomy.
Northeastern India has long suffered from its geographic isolation due to its narrow corridor of land from the rest of India known as the Siliguri Corridor or the Chicken’s Neck. This isolation has impeded economic growth and made the region highly dependent on a few transit routes for trade and mobility. The Gelephu–Kokrajhar railway link directly addresses this issue by providing a viable alternate corridor that integrates the region's transportation network with neighbouring Bhutan and, by extension, with India’s broader national grid. This improved connectivity not only fosters smoother movement of goods and people but also helps to unlock the economic potential of a region rich in natural resources and cultural diversity.
"The only leverage Bangladesh has against India is the use of its Chittagong and Matarbari ports for shipment of goods to northeastern India through an agreement that was signed between New Delhi and Dhaka," Prabir De, Professor at the New Delhi-based Research and Information System for Developing Nations (RIS) think tank, told ETV Bharat. "The Chittagong port is faced with the challenge of high siltation while the Matarbari port is under development with Japanese assistance."
According to De, why the Gelephu-Kokrajhar railway link assumes significance is that it will help in the shipment of goods from Bhutan to the Kolkata and Haldia ports faster.
"The infrastructure in India is much better compared to Bangladesh," De said. "Due to the poorer infrastructure in Bangladesh, goods transferred from Bhutan will take longer to reach the ports along the Bay of Bengal in that country."
To sum up, the Gelephu–Kokrajhar railway link serves as a direct countermeasure to this vulnerability. By creating a robust land-based connectivity corridor, India is effectively reducing its reliance on neighbouring transit routes that may pass through or depend on Bangladesh’s maritime facilities. This diversification of logistics not only bolsters trade but also enhances strategic autonomy by reducing potential choke points that any external power might exploit. In this context, the railway project is a tangible step toward mitigating the risks highlighted by Yunus’s comments. It positions India to better integrate its landlocked northeastern region with both domestic and international trade networks, thereby diminishing the relative dominance of maritime gateways controlled by neighbouring countries.
