Northeast sanctioned over INR 60,000 crore for road projects in last 3 years

DIMAPUR: A total of 4686 km of National Highways amounting to over INR 60,093 crore have been sanctioned by Ministry of Road Transport and Highways in North East Region (NER) in the last 3 years.

The major ongoing projects in NER include four-laning of Dimapur-Kohima road in Nagaland, four-laning of Nagaon bypass to Holongi in Arunachal Pradesh, alternate two-lane highway from Bagrakote to Pakyong in Sikkim, two-laning of Aizawl-Tupang in Mizoram and four-laning of Imphal-Moreh section in Manipur.

This was informed by Minister for DoNER G Kishan Reddy at Lok Sabha in a written reply on Monday. He stated that the government of India is implementing various flagship programmes and other schemes for the development of the NER through the respective administrative ministries and departments within the approved financial outlays as per scheme design.

He stated that as per extant policy of the government, fifty-five non-exempted central ministries and departments are mandated to spend at least 10% of their Gross Budgetary Support (GBS) for central sector and centrally sponsored schemes in the NER for the overall development of the region including infrastructural development.

He updated some of the infrastructure development projects taken up by the concerned central Minister and department in NER.

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

Also, it was informed that a total of 19 railway infrastructure projects, falling fully or partly in Northeast, covering total length of 1909 km at a cost of INR 77,930 crore have been undertaken during the last three years. Out of which, 409 km length has been commissioned and an expenditure of INR 30,312 crore has been incurred upto March 2022.

While, airports at Rupsi, Tezu, Tezpur, Pasighat, Jorhat, Lilabari, Shillong, Pakyong,

Itanagar and Dimapur involving 64 routes have been operationalised under UDAN in the Northeast. Presently, there are 16 operational airports in the North East Region comparing to 9 operational airports in 2014 in the North East Region.

During the last three years, 4 Waterway projects costing INR 1040.71 crore have been sanctioned in NER. The projects include: Comprehensive Development of NW-16 (River Barak); Construction of Ship Repair Facility at Pandu (Guwahati) and development of Alternate Road Connectivity to Pandu Port (River Brahmaputra); Development of IWT on river Khawthlangtuipui- Tuichawng in Lunglei District, Mizoram; and Development of Inland Water Transport on Gumti River in Tripura.

The ministry alos updated that the Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd. (PGCIL) is executing two major Intra State power transmission and distribution schemes viz. (i) North Eastern Region Power System Improvement Project (NERPSIP) for Six States (Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura and Nagaland) for strengthening of the Intra-State Transmission and Distribution Systems (33 kV and above) at an estimated cost of INR 6,700 crore.

In addition, the Ministry of DoNER under North East Special Infrastructure Development Scheme (NESIDS) have also sanctioned 6 power projects amounting to INR 273.01 crore.