Once one of the two most important river ports in Myanmar, Sittwe was used to ferry supplies to the northeast of India during the British Raj. From Sittwe, the cargo was taken by waterway 170 kilometres upstream at Paletwa – where the river encounters rapids – for further travel by head-loads to neighbouring Mizoram. According to a 2008 agreement between the two nations, India’s Ministry of External Affairs proposed to revive this route to establish easy access to northeast India.