Air-connectivity in the north-eastern region is less than 3% of all traffic in the top 46 airports in India, says a new report on the region. While there are 11 operational and 11 non-operational airports in the region, three of the state capitals do not have any airport. Only Guwahati and Agartala airports have night landing facilities.
These are some of the findings of a report published by Yes Bank and the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) recently. The north eastern states have a “fairly good” human development index but lag behind economically due to lack of infrastructure.
Another report published by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and ICC found that limited infrastructure coupled with low productivity and restricted market access has been the primary barrier to the region?s development. The Yes Bank report said the lack of infrastructure had created horizontal divisions among various ethnic groups affecting the fabric of social harmony in the region. The region has more than 160 scheduled tribes and over 400 other tribal and sub-tribal communities and groups.
But it’s on the connectivity front that the north-east comes up really short. Road connectivity in the north-east is well below the national average on most parameters, said the Yes Bank report.
Road density in the north eastern region (NER)-which covers an area of 2,62,179 sq km, varies from 1.4 per sq km in Sikkim to 0.17 per sq km in Arunachal Pradesh. Most of other NER states have around 200 people per km of road.
While a mere 30% roads are paved using asphalt, the rest are made of gravel or earth construction. Almost two-thirds of the roads is less than 4 metres wide, making it difficult for a vehicle to pass.
The Yes Bank report has proposed a dedicated NER road maintenance fund as maintenance of roads in NER has been a problem due to funds crunch. It has also suggested an output and performance based road contracts model for the region where the contractors are not paid for inputs but for outputs or according to pre-decided performance metrics.
It has also suggested output-based aid model in those areas where users will pay for the infrastructure.
To improve air connectivity, the Yes Bank report has suggested emphasis on three-four areas in NER which have maximum interest of business travellers and tourists to overcome the low air traffic in the region.
Despite huge possibility in hydro power, NER has a total installed capacity of 2,852 MW-with half of it coming from hydro power- against 155,859 MW in India.
According to the PwC report, NER has the potential to generate more than 40,000 MW of hydro power apart from coal and gas based power. Some of the key recommendations of the Yes Bank report include the need for a sustainable and clear power policy for NER and improvement in interstate transmission lines.
The PwC report has also stressed on the need to use information technology to develop the region.
On the agriculture front, the horticulture mission in the state has not been successful in increasing productivity despite an improvement in area under cultivation.
It has also asked for strategic IT intervention in the agriculture sector in the form of schemes like planning and monitoring system, integrated agricultural information system and disease surveillance system.