Road Infrastructure in Manipur and India's Look East Policy

When Northeast India in general and Manipur in particular emerge as the most feasible land route to Southeast Asia under its Look East Policy, a good road infrastructure became indispensable. Here the importance of roadways is more evident, particularly the NH-2 which is linked to the roads of Myanmar leading to Mandalay and further towards Thailand. The question is can the total of about 13000 km long road (surfaced road is less than 50 per cent) in Manipur meet the need of the new moves associated with Look East policy which is likely to happen sooner or later. Does the domestic road set up have the required standard as well as the capacity to meet the flow of international trade in the region? Understanding the overall domestic road infrastructure of Manipur is of utmost importance. The paper attempts to see the reciprocity between the need for growth of physical infrastructure like road in Manipur and the enhancement of LEP.