New Delhi, 2 July (IANS). Union Communications and North Eastern Region Development Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said on Wednesday that 36 states and union territories of India are like a train and under the dynamic vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the northeastern region has definitely become the engine of that train running in 2047.
In an exclusive conversation with IANS in Delhi, Scindia said that in the last 65 years, there has been a deprived of North Eastern development and progress and in the last 11 years, there has been a real change in the region, whether it is road, railway, air services, healthcare, social security etc. areas.
The Union Minister said, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi has visited the north eastern regions 70 times, which is a record in itself. If you gather all the tours of all the Prime Ministers of India in all 65 years, then they have not been able to go to the North Eastern region so many times.”
He further said that along with this, the government has also invested Rs 5 lakh crore to promote development in North Eastern regions. Road, rail and air service are all being noted. Earlier there were nine airports in the North East. At the same time, 17 airports have been built today. There was not even an airport in a state like Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim for 65 years, but due to the efforts of the Modi government, there is an airport in Sikkim, four airports in Arunachal today.
Talking on the road infrastructure, the Union Minister said that there were 10,000 km of highways in the earlier North East, now there have been up to 16,000 km of highways. Roads of Rs 50,000 crore to 40,000 km roads were built in the road in rural areas and the same situation is in Rail Road. About 2,000 km railway road is still being constructed.
The Modi government is determined to provide rail service to eight north eastern states. The government is spending Rs 80,000 crore for this. Today five North Eastern states have rail service. We are committed to providing rail service to the remaining three states by 2027.
Today, the longest road bridge in the entire country, Bhupen Hazarika Bridge, has been deployed for four and a half kilometers and the world’s longest road cum rail bridge bogie Mail Bridge has started nine and a half kilometers.
These are the records of the North Eastern states that we could not even imagine. Similarly, in the social sector, in the field of health, in the field of education, in every region, the country’s growth engine has been made to make the country’s growth engine.
-IANS
ABS/GKT
