Growing tension between India and Bangladesh has brought the delayed Kaladan Multimodal Transit Transport Project (KMTTP) project of connecting the northeast region with the rest of India through Sittwe port on Kaladan River in Myanmar to the centre stage of strategic discourse. Expediting the India-funded KMTTP has become crucial to open an alternate route to the narrow and strategic Siliguri Corridor, bypassing Bangladesh. Political turmoil and civil war in Myanmar clouded the project, delaying construction of a vital road component connecting Paletwa in the neighbouring country to Zorinpui in Mizoram. After the ethnic Arakan Army rebels gained strategic control over the Chin State bordering Mizoram, the completion of this road component is now dependent on India managing to finely balance its ties with Myanmar’s military junta and the strategic interest to expedite KMTTP in Chin state. The Arakan Army has also gained control over Rakhine state in Myanmar, where the Sittwe port is located. This development explains the importance of India securing the support of the rebel group, not just to complete the project but also to keep the route open and functional. The KMTTP was pushed in 2008, with India and Myanmar signing the Framework Agreement and Protocols in 2008 after the then Khaleda Zia regime blocked India's efforts to get road and railway transit through Bangladesh for connecting the Northeast region with the rest of India. After the Sheikh Hasina-led friendly regime returned to power in Bangladesh in 2009, the hope for transit through the country as well as the Northeast region’s access to sea through Chittagong and Mongla ports in Bangladesh brightened. India and Bangladesh reached an understanding in 2015 that Bangladesh shall allow the use of Chittagong and Mongla Ports for the movement of goods to and from India. The situation drastically changed following the ouster of the Sheikh Hasina regime and the installation of the interim regime in Bangladesh headed by Muhammad Yunus and backed by Islamist radicals. Bangladesh Chief Adviser Yunus’s provocative reference to the Northeast region as “landlocked” while making an economic pitch to China to invest in Bangladesh and pushing for a regional economic plan involving India’s “seven sisters”, Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh has serious connotations for India’s strategic interest and security of the Northeast region. India is imposing a curb on imports from Bangladesh through land ports after the neighbouring country, in response to Bangladesh imposing restrictions on the export of cotton from India. Bangladesh moving closer to China and Pakistan has put India on alert, with security and strategic experts underlining the importance of India intensifying its diplomatic and paradiplomacy initiatives in Myanmar to fast-track KMTTP on a priority basis. Fully operationalising the KMTTP project connecting Kolkata port to the Northeast region via Sittwe is also critical to decongesting the narrow Chicken Neck corridor, the only land route connecting the region to the rest of India. The Union Cabinet has approved a high-speed access-controlled four-lane Shillong-Silchar greenfield highway that will eventually integrate KMTTP for faster movement of goods supplied to and from the rest of India through Kolkata port via Myanmar and Mizoram. The fast-changing geopolitical dynamics in the region have pressed the alarm bell for India to pursue the KMTTP to ensure that the economic activities that have gained momentum in the northeast region because of infrastructure and connectivity push in the region by the central and state governments are not slowed down by congestion or external security emergencies in the Chicken Neck corridor. Expeditious construction of a 109km road component from Paletwa in Myanmar to the India-Myanmar border at Mizoram is an urgent strategic compulsion which has put the acumen of Indian statecraft and diplomacy to the test. Reports of Indian security officials meeting Arakan Army representatives to discuss the KMTTP triggered hopes for ending the uncertainty over the project completion timeline. Arakan Army softening their stand on the project and reportedly agreeing not to obstruct the project after targeting it in 2019 is indicative of the evolving situation. India will have to continue walking the tightrope on KMTTP to keep engaging with the ruling military junta in Myanmar diplomatically and negotiate the security of the KMTTP project with the Arakan Army, keeping in mind its own strategic interest of an alternate route between Kolkata and the northeast region. India succeeding in convincing both the ruling military junta and the Arakan Army that the operationalisation of KMTTP is in the economic interest of both neighbouring countries will be vital for the long-term strategic sustainability of the project and that ensuring the internal conflict and political turmoil will have no adverse impact on it. An alternate sea route connecting the northeast region through Myanmar will have serious economic fallout for Bangladesh, as it will completely end dependence of the region on it for transit and transport of goods or access to the global markets through sea routes. The strategic importance of KMTTP for unlocking the economic potential of the northeast region has grown bigger than before.