New Delhi, December 13: The Union Minister of Ports, Shipping & Waterways and Ayush, Sarbananda Sonowal termed the Northeast as the powerhouse of India’s cruise towards self-reliance here today. The Union Minister addressed a press conference regarding the ‘Development of Northeast Region’ since 2014 here today.
The Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal highlighted the key role played by Prime Minister Narendra Modi led government to bring Northeast India to the forefront of India’s Growth Story, with sincere and concrete effort towards sustained peace and security.
A focussed approach to uplift the marginal sections of the society for them to lead a life of dignity, innovative policy framework enabling a positive environment for trade and commerce to prosper led to the historic rise of northeast since 2014.
Speaking on the occasion, the Union Minister, Sarbananda Sonowal said, “Under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji, the Northeast is the Power House of India’s cruise towards self-reliance.
Given the transformational connectivity that the northeast has experienced in the last 9 years, the region has now become the potential hotspot of trade and commerce. Modi ji realized the strategic importance of the northeast and enabled an environment of an economic resurgence with promising commerce with the ASEAN, BBIN group of countries.”
Speaking about the peace effort for sustained development in the region, Sarbananda Sonowal said, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji has always met the brethren of the northeast with utmost respect and with a deep sense of acknowledgment for them as equal partners of nation building.
Due to this humane approach of Modi ji, the insurgency has come down drastically leading to a near 100% drop of civilian casualties in 2023. More than 8,000 insurgents have surrendered in the last nine years.
A concerted effort to scale down the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) has led to the complete withdrawal from Tripura and Meghalaya, a significant reduction of area under the act in Assam, Nagaland, and Manipur.
With historic peace accords with Bodos, Naga, Karbi, Tripuri, and Bru and Adivasi, the disgruntled communities have been brought to the mainstream through dialogue, resulting in sustained peace that the region has been hoping and longing for decades.
This is the ‘Modi Ki Guarantee’ as decades-old differences were addressed head-on with dignity and respect to find amicable solutions. This has not only boosted economic activity but also led to a reduction in migration for employment and fueled further development.
The other result is the reduction of travel time between northeast and other states with railway lines already reaching Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Manipur, and Meghalaya, apart from Assam. Since 75 years of independence, this was made possible only in the last nine years of Narendra Modi leadership to bring about transformational transportation for and within the region.
Modi has visited the Northeast 64 times since becoming the Prime Minister, which is the only instance and highest for any PM of India ever. This shows the commitment of Modi ji for the people of the northeast to bring them to the mainstream & make them active members in the process of nation building towards a self-reliance Atmanirbhar Bharat in 2047.”
The newly launched PM-DevINE scheme, for NER, by the honourable Prime Minister in October 2022 with 100% Central funding, having a total outlay of ₹6,600 crores for the 4 years from 2022-23 to 2025-26. In FY 2022-23, 11 projects worth ₹1,503 crores have been selected for sanction. This has opened up tremendous opportunities for this region.
With the ‘Act East Policy’ launched under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India has witnessed significant advancement driven by the government’s investment and development initiatives.
Modi Government has spent ₹1,040 crores on the development of waterways which has resulted in the operation of 20 Waterways in NER which was only ‘ONE’ till 2014.
With the initiatives taken in the last 9 years, the cargo handled via the Indo-Bangladesh Protocol route (IBPR) has increased to 170%. It is also noteworthy that the first Ship Repair facility, with an investment worth ₹208 crores, in NER is being developed through Hooghly-Cochin Shipyard Limited (HCSL) at Pandu along River Brahmaputra.
This year, as a major development of Cruise tourism in Brahmaputra, MV Ganga Vilas, completed the longest river cruise route in the world by traveling from Varanasi to Dibrugarh via Bangladesh covering around 3,200 km in 51 days.
Further to this, the development of 6 ferry terminals at Kurua, Bahari, Dhubri, Guijan, Ghagor & Matmora in Assam worth ₹310 crores will cater to the transportation needs of commuters, which will ease the current bottlenecks of transportation.
Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways (MoPSW), under its Sagarmala program, has taken up projects worth more than ₹1,000 crores for the development of North-East states.
In comparison to UPA-2 (2009-14), there has been an increase of 370% in average annual budget allocation for NER. Before 2014, only Guwahati (Assam) was connected to the rail network in the North Eastern region. Today, under the ‘Capital Connectivity’ project, Itanagar (Arunachal Pradesh) and Agartala (Tripura) have now been connected.
During the last 9 years, pioneering steps have been taken in the NER which has enabled people of this region to cherish many facilities for the first time in this area.
In 2022, the first Goods Train reached Rani Gaidinliu railway station, Tamenglong in Manipur. Also, the first Leased Parcel Cargo Express Train (PCET) traveled from Azara in Guwahati, Assam to Vasco-da-Gama in Goa.
In 2023, the first electric train reached Meghalaya. Interestingly, the newly commissioned Agartala – Akhaura railway project, linking Bangladesh and the North-Eastern states of India will cut down the time between Kolkata and Agartala significantly.
NER has also seen many infrastructural developments during the last 9 years. One such is the construction of the Bogibeel Rail-cum-Road Bridge over River Brahmaputra near Bogibeel with link lines on north & south banks (Length–73 km) — in the state of Assam, which was completed in December 2018 with an estimated cost of ₹5,920 crores.
Highlighting the achievements the Union Minister said, “Since 2014, the length of the National Highways in NER has increased from 10,905 Kms to 15,735 Km increasing by 45%.
In the year, 2009-14 around 181 road construction works were done resulting in 2,778 KM of road, and in 2014-19 around 394 road construction works were done resulting in 5,520 KM of road.”
Under the North East Special Infrastructure Development Scheme (NESIDS), 145 projects worth ₹3,392.99 crores have been sanctioned for development in the North Eastern States.
There is a record growth in the number of airports in NER. The number of airports has increased to 17 in 2023 as compared to 9 in 2013, with 3 international airports now as compared to 1 airport then. The traffic movement has also increased by 113%.
North Eastern Region Power System Improvement Project (NERPSIP), under the Ministry of Power, has recently got its revised estimates of ₹6,700 crores for implementation of various projects in NER, except Arunachal Pradesh, which is targeted to be commissioned by January 2024.
A North East Gas Grid has been conceived at an estimated cost of ₹9,265 crores which covers 1,656 Km across all 8 States. A bio-refining plant at a cost of ₹3,250 crores has also been set up in Assam.
In the education sector, the Modi Govt has spent ₹21,151 crores. Since then, in 2014 Government has established 843 schools and up-skilled 25,64,628 teachers.
Not only at the school level but at the higher education level, the govt has established 8 new medical colleges, 2 new IIITs (Manipur and Tripura), 1 new IIMC (Mizoram), 1 new AIIMS (Assam), and 1 new Sports University (Manipur).
The government has also spent ₹31,794 crores in the health sector which includes approval of 19 state cancer institutes and 20 tertiary care cancer centres. The first All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in the Northeast is now operational at Changsari near Guwahati.
Since 2014-15, ₹ 37,092 crores have been sanctioned for various projects. The Subansiri Hydro Electric Power project (2000 MW) being built at a cost of ₹ 19,992 crores is expected to bring huge development to the region.
The total of 77 lakh households have been electrified including 30 lakh households under ‘Saubhagya Yojana’. As many as 5,790 villages have been electrified under the ‘Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojana’.
To improve telecom connectivity in the NER, ₹ 4,360 crores have been spent since 2014. More than 12,690 Gram Panchayats are being connected via the Bharat Net project. BSNL has taken 20 Gbps connection from Bangladesh to enhance internet connectivity in the region. There are now 1,000 4G towers and 5,600 villages are connected.
