Enhancing infrastructure of Northeast

K. K. Sen

(Director of Economics and Statistics (Retd) )

It has been noticed that even after more than seven decades of independence, our country’s northeastern region continued to be neglected as compared to other regions of the country, and it became a victim of terrorism, extremism, and insurgency over the years. It’s a remarkable matter to highlight that, with the major initiative of the present government, a separate ministry (DONER) has been initiated for the development of the northeastern region and has made an effort to carry the momentum forward. It is an exemplary instance that the longest railway connecting and recording construction of highways in this region brought a new helm in this regard. The inauguration of Donyi Polo, the airport, and Kameng hydropower station by the present prime minister of India will obviously lead the country to achieve a new height with renewed speed.

The Donyi airport will be the fourth national aerodrome in Arunachal Pradesh, bringing the total airfields in the NE region to 16. This rapid development in this region reflects the special emphasis on enhancing connectivity. As declared by the Prime Minister of India, the Northeast was achieving highest priority on all development fronts, whether it concentrated on culture or agriculture, pisciculture or sericulture, trade or tourism, textiles or telecom, the region gained much momentum for commencing a new era of renaissance. His assurance to develop border villages in the region gracefully and magnificently will give a big boost to tourism.

Another noble initiative for enhancing infrastructure in this region is the prime minister’s innovative approach to empowering the nation with green electricity by inaugurating the 600-megawatt Kameng Hydropower Station. The major benefit attributed to it is the generation of large amounts of hydropower, to the tune of 3353 million units of electricity annually. The generated power is likely to encompass a major area covering Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, and Nagaland in the NE region, as well as Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and Chhattisgarh. Apart from this, some solar energy stations were also installed in different localities in the region. The initiative to make Assam a sustainable tourism destination is another milestone towards making the state a place of attraction on the map of the world. Assam has enormous potentialities in every nook and corner that enthral the hearts of travellers, but it demands an augmentation of its beauty, protection, and safeguard.

The Gatishakti scheme launched by the prime minister is no doubt the greatest national master plan for multi-model connectivity. The digital platform to bring 16 ministries, including railways and roadways, together for integrated planning and a coordinated approach will facilitate reducing the cost of transportation and stimulate a vibrant change in overall national and international connectivity, as the present road-length and railway route length are at a stage of 6940 thousand kilometre and 67.9 thousand kilometre, respectively, at the national level. This connectivity in inter- and intra-state will undoubtedly grease the wheels in increasing export potentiality and, on the other hand, provide a big boost in GNP level, which is at present at 203 lakh crore at current prices. It is often alleged that the northeastern region is still backward despite having all feasibility, which has not been harnessed in terms of per capita consumption of electricity, length of roads, and railways per capita, which remain far below the national average. But it is much appreciated that the government is now making every attempt to achieve a significant height. Though there is ample scope to modernize both the agriculture and horticulture sectors, we have not yet fully attained self-sufficiency in food grain. The climate of the region is much suitable for the cultivation of orchids and mushrooms, along with other crops that deem to have much demand in Japan, Singapore, and other countries of the world.

A public-private partnership coupled with proper financial support and infrastructural assurance can go a long way towards stepping forward. Some of the cities as well as rural areas in the NE region are plagued with the problem of safe drinking water, electricity, and communication facilities as the percentage of households availing drinking water within premises is at 54.8 per cent and the percentage of families possessing facility of electricity is also very meagre at 37 per cent in Assam, while Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Nagaland are at 16.1, 24.1, 31.2, and 29.3 per cent in terms of percentage so far as households having safe drinking water within premises as compared to 46.6 per cent at the national level. In contrast to 67.2 per cent of households having electricity at the national level, the five states of the NE region, namely Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Nagaland, are at 68.3, 60.9, 84.2, and 81.6 per cent, respectively. The emerging of many localities in this region with darkness due to the non-existence of street lights is regarded as a major problem that needs to be settled expeditiously. The solar street light project under Assam Energy Development Agency (APDA) stood at 8682 as compared to only 720 in 2019–20, which is undoubtedly a remarkable effort. The elected members of the Municipal Corporation or the local bodies must assure the citizens with dynamic cooperation and sort out all emergent issues in a vibrant way with effective planning like in Chandigarh, Indore, Singapore, etc. The lost faith and retrogressive attitude of the common masses must be done away with to make headway in innovative thinking.

A challenge against all remonstrance needs to be ensured with Renaissance. The Chief Minister’s Rojgar Yoyana to involve unemployed youth in development activities deserves appreciation. It is interesting to note that the development gap between India and European countries has been declining gradually. If progressive achievement in infrastructural development sustains, the day is not far off to achieve a takeoff stage. However Covid pandemic threatened Indian economy at cross road. The weakness in financial management, unrealistic budgeting, inter-state imbalance, non-utilization of funds, misutilization or misappropriation, etc. are mostly responsible for development hindrances. Though a number of schemes are proposed for overall development, the crucial need of the hour is empowerment in all spheres coupled with sincerity. Major impetus needs to be given for ironing out all bottlenecks and making the system hassle-free to ensure an effective credit plan with major initiative to percolate it down to the grassroots level; otherwise, despite all the initiative taken for infrastructure uplift, it will turn out to be in vain.