Context

This editorial is based on the news “Bhutan’s opening move, its Gelephu gambit” which was published in the Hindu. This article highlights the Gelephu Mindfulness City (GMC), a unique Bhutanese architectural blueprint as a special administrative zone with separate, investor-friendly laws.

About Gelephu Mindfulness City (GMC)

• Regional Economic Hub: 

  • It is Bhutan’s plans for a regional economic hub at Gelephu, a town bordering Assam in India. 
    • The plan was launched by Bhutan’s King in December 2023.

• Newer Global Peers: 

  • As a carbon-neutral city, Gelephu would include only non-polluting industries (mainly IT, education, hotel and hospital sectors), and would be promoted as an investment destination and health and wellness hub in the middle of the region. 
    • Examples: Planned cities such as Saudi Arabia’s Neom and Indonesia’s Nusantara, Hong Kong, Singapore, etc. 

• Strategic Location: 

  • It would also lie at the crossroads of India’s “Act East” plans for connectivity to Myanmar.
    • On to Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the Indo-Pacific region as well as the new India-Japan connectivity plans between India’s north-eastern States through Bangladesh to the Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean. 

Significance & Opportunities of Gelephu City

• Economic: Tourism is Bhutan’s mainstay. If Bhutan wants to increase these revenues, it must scale up its capacity to take in more tourists and visitors and land bigger planes.
  • And the Gelephu project involves scaling up the Gelephu airport and tarmac to international standards, which will need financing and expertise from India. 
• Growth & Development: The Gelepu project would result in generation of job and revenues and can combat the growing “outmigration” of Bhutanese youth. 
• Combat Geopolitical Concern: It can help in combating geopolitical concerns such as pressure from its northern neighbour China to conclude a boundary resolution deal and to establish diplomatic ties. 
  • Gelephu offers Bhutan a way to open itself up in a controlled manner to the rest of the world, while also continuing negotiations with China for a stable border.

Challenges With the Gelephu City

• Regular Flooding: With warmer temperatures than in the mountains, Gelephu gets high amounts of rainfall during a monsoon season, leading to considerable flooding each year. 
• Elephant Corridor: The surrounding forests and wildlife populations place Gelephu right in the middle of elephant corridors. 
• Insurgents & Operations: Insurgencies in Assam and the northeastern States lead to a major military operation (such as Operation All Clear) are other threats.
• Dependency on Neighbours: Gelephu is landlocked and is dependent on other countries, primarily India, to provide the infrastructure for trade and transport out of the special administrative region.

India’s Stake

• Strong Ties: India and Bhutan have thus far built an idyllic relationship, based on a strong understanding between every Bhutan’s king and Indian Prime Minister over the past 75 years. 
• A Helping Hand: Bhutan’s requests have seldom ever been rejected, and India is the leading source of investments in Bhutan, comprising 50% of its total foreign direct investment. 
• Security for Both: India would also be wary of “missing an opportunity” of the kind seen in Sri Lanka’s Hambantota a decade ago, which sent the close neighbour to China, caused unsustainable debt and is a project that risks becoming a “white elephant”. 
• Connectivity and Investment: Gelephu’s infrastructure needs to dovetail with India’s initiatives for regional connectivity and infrastructure. 
  • Collaboration with Bhutan in areas like renewable energy and cross-border trade enhances India’s strategic interests.
• Regional Development: In addition to climate-friendly solar and wind power generation projects, India’s plans for a South Asian power grid that would draw electricity from Nepal and Bhutan, with supply to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka would lend itself to more consistent power supplies needed for Gelephu.

Conclusion

The Gelephu project offers a chance for the region to conjure an imagination beyond the problematic present — one that is a huge gamble for Bhutan, but also a potential gamechanger for the region, with help from India.