Union Minister for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) G Kishan Reddy recently said in Lok Sabha that 17 airports have been made operational in the northeastern region.
The development of a new greenfield airport at Tezu in Arunachal Pradesh, Dibrugarh, Guwahati and Silchar airports in Assam, Imphal airport in Manipur, Barapani airport in Meghalaya and Agartala airport in Tripura are ongoing, said the minister, reported PTI.
The greenfield airport is constructed from scratch either on undeveloped ground or a new site. The government framed up a Greenfield Airports (GFA) Policy, 2008 to provide detailed guidelines, procedures, and steps related to the construction of Greenfield airports across the country.
Airports operationalised
As many as 17 airports have been made operational in the northern region. In his reply to a question, he said that Donyi Polo airport (erstwhile Holongi Airport)has been flagged off, reported PTI.
Railway projects
New projects to the tune of Rs 19,855 crore have been sanctioned for constructing railway tracks of 864.7 km since 2014-15, said the minister referring to the railway projects.
He said that 20 projects for new lines and doubling are at different stages of planning or execution or approval, which could cost Rs 74,485 crore for 2,011 km length falling fully or partly in the northeastern region.
Out of these, 321 km has been commissioned and for which an expenditure of Rs 26,874 crore has been incurred, said Reddy.
Road connectivity
Ministers and concerned departments of the Central government have taken up several infrastructure development projects in the northeastern region. The government has also stressed on the road connectivity in this region.
Major ongoing road connectivity projects in the northeastern region include: four laning of Nagaon bypass to Holongi (167 km) in Arunachal Pradesh, four-laning of Dimapur-Kohima road (62.9 km), alternate two-lane highway from Bagrakote to Pakyong (NH-717 A) (152 km) in Sikkim; two laning of Aizawl – Tuipang NH-54 (351 km) in Mizoram; four-laning of Imphal–Moreh section of NH-39 (20 km) and two-laning of 75.4 km in Manipur among others, he said.