The Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region
[Dr. Jitendra Singh]
(a) and (b) Infrastructure projects taken up in the North Eastern Region include projects of road and rail connectivity; modernisation and development of airports; development of Inland Waterways and Power sectors.
For improvement of connectivity and road infrastructure in the North East Region, an expenditure of Rs.12639 crore has been incurred in the last three years on projects for construction/upgradation of National Highways and under Special Accelerated Road Development Programme for North East (SARDP-NE). Under, the North East Road Sector Development Scheme (NERSDS), launched by this Ministry during 2015-16 for upgrading critical interstate roads, Tura-Mankachar Road (Meghalaya-Assam) has been completed and Harmoti-Doimukh Road (Assam-Arunachal Pradesh) as well as Wokha-Merapani Road (Assam-Nagaland) have been taken up.
To augment the railway network, seven railway line projects consisting of three new lines and four projects of doublings have been taken up during the last three years.
In respect of Air connectivity, projects worth more than Rs.2600 crore (approx.) have been taken up in the last three years for modernization and development of Airports, including at Guwahati, Imphal, Agartala, Dibrugarh, Dimapur; and upgradation works at Tezu Airport. The Greenfield Airport at Pakyong has been constructed at a cost of Rs.553.50 crore and is now operational.
19 new waterways have been declared as National Waterways (NWs) in the North East. An expenditure of Rs.270.50 crore was incurred on projects of National Waterway (NW) No.2 (River Brahmaputra) & NW-16 (River Barak) and studies for 18 new NWs, in the last three years.
In the power sector, projects for augmenting transmission and distribution system have been taken up under Comprehensive scheme for Strengthening Transmission and Distribution System in Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim at an estimated cost of Rs.4754.42 crore and North Eastern Region Power System Improvement Project for the States of Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura and Assam at an estimated cost of Rs.5111.33 crore.
(c) Implementation/progress of infrastructure projects is monitored/reviewed periodically by the concerned administrative Ministries at appropriate level. This Ministry also coordinates with various Central Ministries/Departments in respect of major infrastructure projects undertaken by them.
(d) The India-Japan Act-East Forum was constituted in 2017 to enhance connectivity and promote developmental projects in the North Eastern Region of India by taking advantage of India-Japan economic and developmental partnership. The Forum has met twice and considered a number of projects as per the requirements of State Governments of the North East Region in areas of connectivity; skill development; sustainable forest management; disaster risk reduction and promotion of bamboo use.
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