Staff Reporter
SHILLONG:
Union Minister of State for the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), B L Verma on Friday highlighted the central government’s efforts in realising the potential of the North East.
The minister was addressing the ‘Conclave on Investment Potential and Future Energy Needs of North East’ in the city.
The conclave at North Eastern Council (NEC) was part of the week-long North East Festival under the banner of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav.
Reiterating Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s commitment for the development of NER, he said, “North East, which was termed as India’s Gateway of Freedom by Netaji, is now becoming the gateway to fulfill the dreams of New India…We are working towards realising the potential of this region.”
The minister stressed on the central government’s commitment to accelerate socio-economic development in NER and apprised of the Gross Budget Support (GBS) allocated to the region.
“All the ministries/departments are required to spend 10 per cent of the GBS from their allocation for the benefit of the Northeastern region. This effort reflects the government’s special focus on developing the region,” he said. He added that with the 10 per cent GBS allocation, the annual budget (revised estimate) for the NE states has increased manifold since 2014-15.
Verma touched upon the various infrastructural initiatives taken to aid progress in the region since 2014 and said, “In order to address the issue of connectivity in this region, the government initiated a slew of infrastructural projects related to air, railways, roads, waterways, energy, telecommunications, etc. Today, rail connectivity has reached Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura, which was earlier limited to Guwahati and five more projects are in line.” The minister also said that the length of the national highways has increased from 10, 905 km in 2014-15 to 13,710 km presently.
Speaking of development on the air connectivity front, the minister added that airport at Holongi in Arunachal Pradesh will be completed by August, 2022. It will add to the existing 15 big and small airports in the North East.
The minister added that with the aid of Universal Service Obligation Fund under the Department of Telecommunications around 5600 villages are being connected through a network of 4404 towers at an expense of Rs 3715 crore. Additionally, with the aim to improve the state of power sector in this region the government has spent Rs 10,003 crore since 2014-15, he added. The minister made mention of the major ongoing projects viz, the 2000 MW Subansiri Lower Hydroelectric Project in Arunachal Pradesh- Assam at an estimated cost of Rs 19,992 crore and the North Eastern Region Power System Improvement Project (NERPSIP) at an estimated cost of Rs 6,700 crore in the six beneficiary states namely, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Tripura.
The minister also mentioned about the new scheme, Prime Minister’s Development Initiative for North-East (PM-DevINE), which was announced in the Union Budget 2022-23. An initial allocation of Rs 1,500 crore will be made for the new scheme. It will fund infrastructure, in the spirit of PM GatiShakti, and social development projects based on felt needs of the North East. This will enable livelihood activities for youth and women, filling the gaps in various sectors, the Minister explained.
He also said that the region has the potential of generating more than 128,000 megawatt of renewable energy.
The conclave was attended by R V Suchiang, Chief Secretary, Meghalaya, K M Chalai, Secretary, NEC, K V Pratap, Senior Economic Adviser, Ministry of DoNER among others.
The highlight of the conclave included presentations by individual ministries on their projects and their thinking for the future. The individual ministries being Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), Power, Civil Aviation, Telecom, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) and Railways.
The Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav – North East Festival will be celebrated till May 4. Each of the seven days will be based on separate themes. The culmination of the week will be celebrated at a valedictory event to be held in Guwahati, Assam on May 4 which will be attended by President Ram Nath Kovind.