PM wants to turn NE region growth engine of India: Union Minister Scindia

Agartala, Nov 15 Union Minister for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) Jyotiraditya Scindia on Friday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants the northeastern region to become a growth engine of the country.

After holding a review of the implementation of projects and schemes of the DoNER ministry in Tripura, Scindia said that PM Modi is keen to make the northeastern region to become a growth engine of the country.

“In last 10 years, the central government and state governments have stressed planning, and funding was increased to Rs 1.03 thousand crore for the region, four times growth in funding compared to the corresponding period of the previous regime,” the Union Minister told the media.

Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha, state ministers Ratan Lal Nath, Sushanta Chowdhury, Bikash Debbarma and top officials were present in the review meeting.

Highlighting the development efforts of the NDA government, the Union Minister said 10,000 km of National Highway was built in northeast India by 65 years of Independence while 5,500 km National Highway was newly built in the region just in the last 10 years.

One out of eight states in the NE region, only two states were connected with railways (till 2014) but now, three state capitals have got railway connectivity and in the next two to three years railway services will be available in all eight state capitals of the region, he pointed out.

Stating that 19 railway projects are being implemented in the northeastern states with a fund involvement of Rs 82,000 crore, the DoNER Minister said that the pace of work has exponentially increased under close watch of the government.

“Railway track laying performance has increased from 60 km per month to 190 km per month now, three times more than the work done previously,” he said.

Scindia, former Civil Aviation Minister and now also holding the Communications portfolio, said that two northeastern states, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh did not have a single airport till a few years back, but the region presently has 17 airports as against nine airports being functional 10 years back.

He said that after the Narendra Modi-led government came to power in 2014, the budgetary allocation for the eight northeastern states has been hiked four times.

During the Congress-led UPA rule, the budgetary allocation was a meagre Rs 24,000 crore for a year, which has been increased to Rs 1 lakh three crore rupees in the last 10 years since the Modi government came to power.

The Minister highlighted that out of the 120 mobile towers that are being set up across Tripura, 90 towers have already been installed and the remaining 29 towers would be erected by May-June 2025 to complete the cent per cent BSNL 4G mobile saturation.

He expressed happiness over the rapid implementation of the 5G network across the country and said it took only 31 months which is a record in itself in the world.

Source: IANS