With the opening of the Mittraphap Road and the northeastern railway connecting central Thailand to her northern provinces not only brought jobs and development to the region. It also created a gateway for one of Thailand's biggest inter-regional migration during the economic boom of the 1980s as demands for labour increased. It was estimated that between 1980-1990 approximately 1.1 million northeasterners had moved from the Northeast to central Thailand and Bangkok. This, in turn, helped popularize and create an unprecedented demand for Lao food outside of Laos and the Northeast.