Spread across perhaps some of the most rugged terrain in Southeast Asia, deep through the dense jungles of Myanmar, these bridges are the groundwork of India's engagement with a country it kept away for long.

Joining hillocks and towering over rivers, the bridges built and maintained with the help of India's Border Roads Organisation (BRO) have laid the groundwork for what New Delhi believes is going to be a long-term engagement with the military rulers of Myanmar.

"In Myanmar, we call them Indian friendship," Min Htwe, a villager, told an IANS correspondent as the first India-ASEAN car rally rolled through Myanmar.

Often with the small insignia of a handshake, the bridges small and big have made India familiar to thousands of Myanmarese in even the remote areas of the country.

The biggest of them all is the upgradation work of the 160 km-long Tamu-Kalewa road, which was completed by the BRO in February 2001 and, under an agreement signed in May 2001, the BRO is to maintain the road for a period of six years.

Other projects at various stages of implementation include the construction and upgradation of the Rhi Tiddim and Rhi Falaam roads along the Mizoram border, the Kaladan multi-modal transport project which aims to connect Mizoram with Sittwe in Myanmar and the India-Myanmar-Thailand highway project.

India has also promised $57 million to help develop the Yangon-Mandalay rail network.

"The Indian touch has been very important here in recent times," said a Myanmar businessman. "I would go as far as to say it's been like the Midas touch. Whatever India touches here, it seems to flourish."

And though worries about the country's lack of democracy persist, there is a newfound bonhomie in the ties. 

"Our approach in Myanmar is based on pragmatism," said Rajiv Bhatia, India's ambassador to Myanmar, which means a quid pro quo bargain where India lends assistance to Myanmar and Myanmar crushes the jungle camps of guerrillas who stoke insurgency in India's northeast.

Recent reports suggest that after New Delhi laid out the red carpet for the Myanmar head of state, Senior General Than Shwe, during his visit a fortnight ago, the Myanmar military has destroyed six rebel camps.

But that's not the only thing. India has begun to realise that Myanmar could be its gateway to Southeast Asia even as it has dawned on Yangon that India could be its interface with the West.

"If we are talking of greater India-ASEAN relations in trade and culture, the importance of Myanmar in any such ties is very important," said Bhatia.

Myanmar is also turning out to be a great trade partner. India is today the second largest export market for Myanmar.

From $12.4 million in 1980-81, India-Myanmar trade grew steadily in the 1990s to reach $328 million in 1997-98. Trade amounted to $428 million in 2001-02.

The two countries also share a 1,600-km border.

All this means greater cooperation than ever before. "We are looking forward to a great era of friendship," said Bhatia.

--Indo-Asian News Service