NEW DELHI: To bring the northeast region at par with other developed states, the Centre has initiated several infrastructure projects in the region. These include road and rail connectivity projects, modernisation and development of airports, development of inland waterways, telecom, power sector projects etc.
Queen Oja, MP from Guwahati Lok Sabha constituency, told The Sunday Guardian: “Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given special focus on the development of the northeast region. In a recent meeting with MPs and Chief Ministers of the northeast states, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and DoNER (Development of North Eastern Region) minister Jitendra Singh had assured that the Centre is keen on overall development of the region wherein infrastructure and communication will be the focal point. The ministers also assured that the Centre will provide the funds required for such developmental projects and schemes.”
In the last five years, the Narendra Modi-led government has spent around Rs 22,585.37 crore on projects such as laying new lines, gauge conversion and doubling in the northeast region. According to the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (MDoNER), under the Special Accelerated Road Development Programme for Northeast (SARDP-NE), a length of 6,418 km of roads was approved out of which about 5,273 km of road was sanctioned for execution at an estimated cost of Rs 57,518 crore. Of the sanctioned 5,273 km stretch, 3,029 km road stretch (as on 31.3.2019) has been completed at a total expenditure of Rs 30,315 crore. However, this correspondent couldn’t find more data as the MDoNER website is not working properly.
Aditya Tiwari, Special Duty Officer (SDO) of the Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh, told The Sunday Guardian that though several schemes and projects had begun during the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime, the completion of these projects happened only after 2014. Tiwari said: “Projects such as putting railway lines in Arunachal Pradesh was announced long ago, but it was after 2014 that the railway lines were finally laid here. Now, there is even a railway network from Itanagar to Dibrugarh and New Delhi. Earlier, there was no airport in the capital city of Arunachal Pradesh and it is Narendra Modi who laid the foundation of an airport in Itanagar.” According to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, to improve connectivity of the northeast region with the rest of India and the world, the Centre is building two new greenfield airports—one at Silchar, Assam, and the other at Hollongi, Itanagar, in Arunachal. Officials said that for the Hollongi airport, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has already initiated preparations for bidding documents, whereas for the airport at Silchar, the AAI has requested the state government to share the details of the land for conducting pre-feasibility study.
Aditya Tiwari said: “Earlier, there were several non-functional Advance Landing Grounds (ALG), but now the government has made all these ALGs functional. This will help the communication network between these small towns and districts with the rest of the country.”
The Bharat Net project is being implemented to provide broadband connectivity to connect 11,956 gram panchayats in a phased manner (5,860 in phase-I and 6,096 in phase-II) at a cost of Rs 644.55 crore. As many as 691 ongoing projects worth Rs 15,332.04 crore that were sanctioned under schemes of MDoNER include Non-lapsable Central Pool of Resources, Northeast Special Infrastructure Development Scheme, Social and Infrastructure Development Fund and special packages.