New dawn of development in NE propels ‘Viksit Bharat’ forward

Duina Barbaruah (dwinakashyap@gmail.com)

No prime minister ever has accorded so much thrust on bringing the Northeast part of India closer to the mainstream as Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his past two tenures and into his third term.

The latest instance is the first-ever Ashtalakshmi Mahotsav at the Bharat Mandapam in the national capital from December 6 to 8. 

I had been to the Mahotsav and was amazed to see the tremendous response from the people of Delhi-NCR and neighbouring states. They were eager to know the people of the region that constitute the eight sister states, their culture, and their food habits. Today their perception of the region as being plagued with insurgency and backwardness has changed to that of a peaceful region with unlimited possibilities, thanks to the initiatives taken by the NDA-led alliance government at the Centre headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Organised by the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), headed by energetic and dynamic Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, the three-day Mahotsav saw the Northeast at its resplendent best.

The State Pavilion from the eight sister states best exemplified the potential of respective states in key sectors. It showcased the rich diversity of Northeast India, highlighting the region’s crafts, art, and cultural heritage in a grand commercial manner.

Many programmes were lined up during the festival to showcase the region’s huge potential in different sectors and its vibrant culture.

The Mahotsav provided an unprecedented platform to showcase the region’s vibrant textile industry, artisanal crafts, and unique Geographical Indication (GI) products.

During the event, industry leaders, designers, and fashion experts discussed sustainable fashion, the future of handloom, and the global potential of Northeast India’s textile industry. A grand musical extravaganza was also organised. An NER postal stamp pavilion showcased the rich postal history of the region. A grameen haat was held where artisans displayed a wide array of local produce, including organic vegetables.

Each of the eight states in NER presented their investment opportunities and highlighted investment-ready projects in key sectors. 

The event fostered long-term business relationships between Northeast India’s artisans and buyers through buyer-seller meets. Technical sessions and roundtable investment forums were held where investors met state representatives, industry leaders, and entrepreneurs to discuss investment opportunities in textiles, handlooms and handicrafts, agriculture and allied sectors, tourism and hospitality, education, and skill development.

At the inaugural session, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was instrumental in naming the Northeast Region as ‘ashtalakshmi,’ emphasised the uniqueness of the region endowed with rich natural and mineral resources and termed it to be India’s growth engine. 

Referring to the Northeast as the ‘Ashtalakshmi of India,’ the Prime Minister said the Ashtalakshmi Mahotsav is a celebration of the brighter future of the Northeast, adding that it is a festival of a new dawn of development, propelling the mission of a ‘Viksit Bharat’ forward.

“Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, and Sikkim… Ashtalakshmi is seen in these eight states of Northeast,” Modi said.

Asserting that the 21st century belongs to India, Modi said, “The 21st century belongs to the East, to Asia, to the East, to India. In such a situation, I firmly believe that the coming times in India also belong to Eastern India, to our Northeast. In the past decades, we have seen the emergence of big cities like Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Chennai…In the coming decades, we are going to see new potential in cities like Agartala, Guwahati, Gangtok, Aizawl, Shillong, Itanagar, and Kohima. Events like Ashtalakshmi will play a very important role in this,” he said.

“We are connecting the Northeast with this ‘triveni’ of emotion, economy, and ecology,” the Prime Minister said. “In the Northeast, we are not just building infrastructure, but are also building a strong foundation for the future,” the Prime Minister said.

He said natural resources are plentiful in Northeast India. “There is an amazing confluence of minerals, oil, and biodiversity in the Northeast. It has huge potential for renewable energy. This dhanlaxmi is a blessing for the Northeast,” Modi said.

Unlike the previous governments, which did not give due attention to the development of the Northeast Region as it viewed a lesser number of votes and seats and hence did not matter the most when it comes to forming a government at the centre, the Modi-led government has been all along during the past ten years and still continues to look at the region as India’s growth engine.

The Northeast has seen a new surge in development with new infrastructure coming up in so far as road, rail, and air connectivity are concerned.  Compared to Congress’ decades of rule, rather ‘misrule’ (almost 70 years), the BJP dispensation during its only 10 years at the helm of affairs has brought in a major transformation in the region. 

Till 2014, 10,800 km of national highways were built in Northeast India, whereas 15,740 km of national highways have been built in the region during the last 10 years. In Assam, a length of 23,147 km of roads under various projects has been built since 2016. The Modi-led government has sanctioned new road projects worth nearly Rs 3 lakh crore for the region in the last 10 years.

From 1947 to 2014, the Congress regime could build just three bridges over the Brahmaputra River. In the last 10 years of BJP rule, six bridges on the Brahmaputra have been constructed. That is not all. The construction work on another six bridges over the Brahmaputra is underway.

Several megaprojects are going on in full steam with scores in the pipeline. Leave the Northeast in its entirety; the State of Assam—the Gateway to Northeast India and Southeast Asia—alone has witnessed rapid strides on the development front, be it infrastructure, health, piped water connections, sanitation, education, or the social sector.

Now comes another piece of good news for the State of Assam with largesse worth a whopping Rs. 1 lakh crore. Prime Minister Modi, during his visit to the Advantage Assam Summit 2.0 to be held on February 24-25 next year in Guwahati, will announce the mega projects as a New Year gift to the people of Assam.

Chief Minister Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma, who met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on December 2, disclosed to the media that he had submitted proposals for the approval of various projects worth Rs 1 lakh crore.

These projects include the enhancement of the capacity of Bongaigaon Refinery and Petrochemical Limited to five million tonnes, the expansion of the Namrup fertiliser plant at a cost of Rs 10,000 crore, the Guwahati ring road, an motorway from Guwahati to Silchar through Meghalaya at a cost of Rs 25,000 crore, the Kaziranga elevated corridor, the Numaligarh-Gohpur underwater tunnel, a bridge over the Brahmaputra connecting Morigaon and Darrang, and a railway line from Guwahati to Gelephu in Bhutan. 

In terms of rail connectivity, the region has witnessed the commissioning of new lines connecting state capitals, gauge conversions, doubling sections with electrification, and the introduction of several long-distance trains. Altogether, 18 railway infrastructure projects (13 new lines and 5 doubling), of a total length of 1,368 km costing Rs 74,972 crore, fall fully/partly in the North Eastern Region and are under planning/approval/construction stages, out of which 313 km length has been commissioned and an expenditure of Rs 40,549 crore has been incurred up to March 2024.

Waterways too have been upgraded, with Pandu and Dhubri ports being given a new facelift. Under the flagship Sagarmala program, projects worth more than Rs. 1,000 crore have been taken up. As many as 20 waterways are operating in NER, raising it to 19 in the last 10 years. The development of six ferry passenger terminals at Kurua, Bahari, Dhubri, Guijan, Ghagor, and Matmora in Assam, worth Rs. 310 crore, will ease the current bottlenecks in transportation.

With the upgradation of the departure and arrival terminals of the Lokapriya Gopinath International Airport and plans to convert the roads leading to the airport to a six-lane one to ensure a smooth flow of traffic in view of the rise in footfalls in air passengers to Assam in general and the North East in general, the region is poised for a big leap in terms of growth and development.

In comparison to a few flights operating to and fro from the region in the recent past, the number of flights has touched a new high. Aircraft movement in the Northeast has witnessed a rise of 113%, up from 852 per week in 2014 to 1,817 per week in 2022. While the region had nine operational airports till 2014, eight more have been built since then, taking the number up to 17 with more plans on the anvil. .

Under the ambitious UDAN regional connectivity scheme, several routes have been awarded for the region. 36 airports/heliports/water aerodromes have been identified in the NE States for the development and operation of RCS flights, and 68 RCS routes have already been operationalised so far under the scheme.

Airports in five Northeastern states, namely Mizoram, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, and Nagaland, have seen flights take off for the first time in 75 years! Today, all eight Northeastern states have now air connectivity. What the Congress regime did in almost seven decades, the BJP dispensation accomplished in just one decade!

Development and peace have gone hand in hand during the BJP rule. The region that was a hotbed of insurgency turned into an oasis of peace. In Assam alone, more than 10,000 militant cadres from several militant outfits surrendered their arms and returned to the mainstream. Nine peace accords were signed with militant outfits from different states of the region under the BJP dispensation, and this is no mean achievement by any standards.

Even the festering interstate boundary disputes between Assam-Meghalaya and Assam-Arunachal Pradesh have been resolved. The Armed Forces (Special) Powers Act (AFSPA) has been removed from more than 70% of the area. The Northeast Region is marching triumphantly on the path of development in sync with Viksit Bharat@2047.