Rajya Sabha
The Government has identified specified ‘thrust areas’ for the socio-economic development of North Eastern reigon. These are:
Road: The Government has formulated the Special Accelerated Road Development Programme (SARDP-NE) for the NER. Phase-A of this Programme, comprising improvement of 1310 km length of national Highways, state roads and Gs roads at an estimated cost of Rs. 4618crore has been approved for implementation and Phase-B, comprising 6306 km roads, has been approved for preparation of Detailed Project Reports.
Railways: as regard to the development of railway network is concerned, 6 new line and 5 gauge conversion works are in progress providing connectivity to capital cities, upper Assam and Arunachal Pradesh and removing transshipment points due to gauge conversion. The on-going works under different categories are as under:
| Projects which will provide connectivity to capital cities | (i) Kumarghat-agartala NL (ii) Harmuti-Itanagar(alternate alignment Bedati-Itanagar is being surveyed)NL (iii) Jiribam-Imphal(Tupul)NL |
| Megabridge project connecting North and South bank | Rail-cum road bridge at Bogibeel near Dibrugarh. |
| Other works | I. Gauge conversion of New Jalpaiguri/Siliguri-New Bongaigoan. II. Senchaa-Silghat (56 kms) and Haibargaon-Mariabari of Lumbding-Dibrugarh including linked branches. III. Gauge conversion of Lumding-Silchar and extension from Badarpur to Baraigram. IV. New line from new Maynaguri-Jogighopa. V. New line from Dudhnoi to Depa. VI. Gauge conversion of Katkhal-Bairabhi. VII. Rangia-Murkongselek GC alongwith linked fingers. |
Tourism: The perspective and vision is to develop North-East as unique sustainable eco-tourism destination with emphasis on the ‘alert independent traveller’ with the objective of unlocking the three tourism pillars of the North East-nature, Culture and Religion so as to provide a competitive advantage to the Region.
This was stated by the Minister of the Department of North Eastern Region, Shri P.R. Kyndiah in a reply to a question by Shri Manohar Joshi in Rajya Sabha today.
NCJ/DT