Mizoram is an oasis of peace in the Northeast, surrounded by trouble-torn Assam and Manipur, and the smaller Tripura, where, too, a lingering insurgency ensures that things are only comparatively better. And the Mizos are capitalising fully on the peace dividend, even sending out the message that "peace pays' to the other states in the region. Mizoram's much admired chief minister Pu Zoramthanga knows what it is like on the other side, in more ways than one. As one of the famed Laldenga's right-hand men in the days of insurgency, he has been underground, on the run, in camps in Bangladesh, known as East Pakistan those days, and Burma. Today, though, he dreams about raising the per capita income of his beloved state to one of the "highest in the country', and is focussing on two means to do that - one is bamboo, grown abundantly in Mizoram and known as "green gold'. The other is the Kaladan (or Kolodyne, as it is also known) river project linking Mizoram to the Sittwe port in Myanmar. On Wednesday this week, Zoramthanga would have heaved a sigh of relief, when Myanmar and India finalised the multimillion dollar project, during the on going five-day visit of Myanmar's Senior General and Vice-president Maung Aye. "This will benefit both Mizoram and India in general, as well as Burma.' Travel time will be cut drastically. There are also, of course, security implications in the project, which will no doubt have been taken into account, to the benefit of both countries. The Kolodyne, known to locals as the Chimtuipui, originates in the Lushai Hills of Myanmar, and crosses the border to flow into Mizoram through the districts of Kunglei and Chimtuipui, going first West and then diving South, before again re-entering Myanmar. The Kolodyne ends its 650-kilometre journey at the Bay of Bengal, flowing into the sea at Sittwe port, also known regionally as the Akyab port. Inside Mizoram, the river runs through dense, hilly, forests