Title - Government expanding rail, air connectivity to North-East India, says DoNER Minister

New Delhi: The government is working on several projects related to North East India in order to expand rail, road and air connectivity in the region. It has been learnt that the government has taken up projects related to 14 new rail lines, four gauge conversion and two other doubling plans. In a written statement, Minister for Development of North Eastern Region Paban Singh Ghatowar said that 367.17 km of new rail lines has been completed in North Eastern Region and gauge conversion of 1580.83 km has been done since 2002-03.      "Special programmes have been taken up for development of roads in North East, which includes East-West Corridor (670 km) and special accelerated road development programme/Phase A (4099 km)," he said.      On air connectivity, he said that average number of departures per week from North Eastern Airports has increased from 226 in 201 to 581 in 2011. However, time overruns have occurred in a number of national projects of Railways in the region, he said.