Difficult terrain in ne poses challenge to development: govt

Difficult terrain, geographical location and short working season pose a challenge to carry out development work and maintain communication links in the Northeast, Union Minister Jitendra

Singh said today. Difficult terrain, geographical location and short working season pose a challenge to carry out development work and maintain communication links in the Northeast, Union

Minister Jitendra Singh said today. "Difficult and hilly terrain, geographical location and short working season of the northeastern region pose a challenge to development of optimal

infrastructure and communication links within the region and with the rest of the country," he said in Rajya Sabha. Singh, Minister for Development of North-Eastern Region (DoNER), said

the infrastructural bottlenecks include inadequate road and railway connectivity, power transmission and distribution, telecom connectivity and absence of airports in the region. He said

Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, under its Special Accelerated Road Development Programme North East (SARDP-NE), out of 1,427 kms, 989 kms of roads have been completed during the

last three years and the current year. Apart from the development under SARDP-NE, about 637 km length of national highways (NHs) covered under NHDP Phases - I and II in Assam are being

improved to four-lane standard as part of East-West Corridor. Singh, replying to a written question, said that works in about 597 kms have been completed so far. Also, improvement of NH-44

from Jowai to Ratacherra (length 104 km) in Meghalaya to two-lane with paved shoulder is in progress by National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). Ministry of Railways has sanctioned two

new rail doubling projects totalling 283 kms in the region in the last three years. Airports Authority of India (AAI) is constructing a greenfield airport at Pakyong (Sikkim) suitable for

operation of ATR-72 aircraft. Also, AAI has planned operationalisation of Tezu airport in Arunachal Pradesh for ATR-72 aircraft operations. (More) (This article has not been edited by

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