Northeast gets over Rs 60,000 crore for road projects in last 3 years

The government of India is implementing various flagship and other schemes for the development of the North Eastern Region through the respective administrative Ministries/Departments within the approved financial outlays as per scheme design. 

As per extant policy of the Government, fifty-five non-exempted Central Ministries/ Departments are mandated to spend at least 10 per cent of their Gross Budgetary Support (GBS) for Central Sector and Centrally Sponsored Schemes in the North Eastern Region (NER) for the overall development of the region including infrastructure development. 

Under 10 per cent GBS, an expenditure of Rs.3.01 lakh crores has been incurred by these Central Ministries/ Departments since the financial year 2017-18.

Several infrastructure development projects have been taken up by the concerned central Ministries and Departments in North Eastern Region (NER) for their development, which, inter-alia, include:

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Road connectivity:

A total of 4686 km of National Highways have been sanctioned by the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways in NER in the last 03 years amounting to Rs 60,093 crores.  

Major ongoing Capital Road Connectivity projects in NER include 4 laning of Dimapur-Kohima Road (77.87 km) in Nagaland; 4 laning of Nagaon bypass to Holongi (167 km) in Arunachal Pradesh; Alternate two-lane Highway from Bagrakote to Pakyong (NH-717A) (152 km) in Sikkim; 2 laning of Aizawl–Tuipang NH-54 (351 km) in Mizoram; 4 laning of Imphal–Moreh section of NH-39 (20 km) and 2-laning of 75.4 km in Manipur.

In addition, the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region under the North East Special Infrastructure Development Scheme (NESIDS) and North East Road Sector Development Scheme (NERSDS) has sanctioned 77 road projects amounting to Rs 3372.58 crore.

Rail connectivity:

19 railway infrastructure projects, falling fully/ partly in North Eastern States, covering total length of 1909 km at a cost of Rs. 77,930 crore have been undertaken during the last three years and are at different stages of planning/ approval/ execution. Out of these, 409 km length has been commissioned and an expenditure of Rs. 30,312 crores has been incurred upto March 2022. 

Air connectivity:

Ministry of Civil Aviation launched Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS)- UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) on 21.10.2016 to enhance regional air connectivity across the country from unserved and underserved airports in the country and make air travel affordable to the masses.

Airports at Rupsi, Tezu, Tezpur, Pasighat, Jorhat, Lilabari, Shillong, Pakyong, Itanagar & Dimapur involving 64 routes have been operationalized under UDAN in the North Eastern Region. There were 9 operational airports in 2014 in the North East Region. 

Presently, there are 16 operational airports in the North East Region. Additionally, the Advanced Landing Ground at Ziro has also been operationalized.