Japan Plans Matarbari Corridor Linking Northeast India — SkimNews
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- Japan is planning to create an industrial value chain connecting India's seven northeastern states with the Bay of Bengal region via Chittagong's Matarbari deep-sea port, which Tokyo has been funding.
- Matarbari Port, funded by JICA and built largely during the Sheikh Hasina era, will be Bangladesh's only deep-sea port once completed; Bangladesh currently relies on Singapore, Colombo and Malaysian ports for large ships.
- Japanese diplomats cited the Bangkok-led Thailand-Cambodia-Vietnam Southern Economic Corridor as the model to emulate around Matarbari to enhance connectivity among Bhutan, Nepal, Myanmar, India and Bangladesh.
- The Maitri Bridge, built during the Hasina period to connect Tripura over the Feni river and enable northeast India-Chittagong-Matarbari traffic, remains non-operational amid political friction in India-Bangladesh relations.
- Bangladesh PM Tarique Rahman visited Matarbari in August and received an invitation from Japanese PM Sanae Takaichi for a four-day Tokyo visit, where he will seek Japanese financial support for 2026-'31 projects including the Matarbari industrial hub.
- The Maheshkhali-Matarbari Integrated Infrastructure Development Initiative is part of the bilateral agenda being finalized for Rahman's visit, which neither side has officially announced.
Why it matters: Bangladesh's first deep-sea port, funded by JICA, anchors Tokyo's plan to connect seven landlocked northeast Indian states to the Bay of Bengal—but the Maitri Bridge, built under Hasina to link Tripura to Chittagong, remains non-operational amid India-Bangladesh political friction. Japan is replicating its Thailand-Cambodia-Vietnam corridor playbook in a region where New Delhi's ties with Dhaka remain strained.
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