Title - North Eastern Council regrets poor Central funding

New Delhi  : North Eastern Council (NEC) today took up a series of issues for comprehensive development of the north eastern region during the 12th Plan period even as it expressed disappointment over the gap between promise and delivery of funds by the Central government during the previous Plans.The Council at its 61st plenary held here yesterday pointed out that, "it is disheartening to note that, in successive Five Year Plans, the ratio of actual allocations and respective Plan Outlays is coming down".NEC representing eight states said it was given just Rs 3248.50 crores against an approved outlay of Rs 7394 crores during the 2007-2012 Plan period,which was just 43.93 per cent of the allocation. The ratio of actual allocation at Rs 2,511.50 crores against an outlay of Rs 3,500 crores during the 10th Plan was 71.76 per cent.The Council further pointed out that 10 road projects envisaging construction of over 800 kms at a cost of Rs 10,205 crores had already been surveyed but are pending with Planning Commission for approval.NEC prepared a tourism master plan for the entire region by identifying 9 inter-state circuits and also the health workforce development plan.The Council said work on 13-km Agartala-Akhaura (Bangladesh) rail line and Lungdim-Hojal-Patch Doubling line of 45 kms are being taken up this year. Total rail network in the north eastern region is 3,908 kms.

NEC wants Imphal, Agartala and Dibrugarh to be developed into hubs for parking big aircraft and Guwahati made into a regional hub,adding that development of Tezu airport has already started.

It said since road and rail connectivity in the region is poor, air connectivity should be improved by building small helipads for quick movement in the hilly terrain.

NEC said two-laning 49 km of the 200-km Churaibai-Agartala national highway-44 has been planned this year, while detail project report for the 130-km Agartala-Sabrooni road is being prepared. About 85 kms of the NH-44 is already two-laned.

The Council expressed the hope that ministries of Railways, Road Transport and Highways and Civil Aviation will come up with special speedy developmental package for the region.

Chief Ministers of Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura and Governors of Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Sikkim, and Tripura among others attended the plenary,NEC said in a statement today.