NEW DELHI, Oct 5 � Union Minister of State for DoNER, Paban Singh Ghatowar described North-East as critical geographical region of India observed that the region being riverine, offers immense scope for development of Inland Water Transport. Ministry of Shipping is working on maximizing the transport facilities on National Waterways-2 and presently, they have taken initiative to notify National Waterways-6 on River Barak in Assam.
Addressing the India-Bangladesh Dialogue on Connectivity in North-Eastern States Ghatowar said the region is India�s gateway to North and Southeast Asia on account of its borders with China and Myanmar. The region also has borders with India�s South Asian neighbours � Bhutan and Bangladesh.
The Minister said that there are also several international connectivity projects in the pipeline which have the potential to transform the region economically. These include the multi-modal transport project for linking Mizoram by road and an inland waterway to the Bay of Bengal through the Sittwe Port in Myanmar, road links for connecting the North East region to Thailand and a rail connection from Delhi to Hanoi in Vietnam through the North East region. Similarly, there is a proposal of rail link between North-east India- Bangladesh and West Bengal, the Minister added.
Ministry of Railways has indicated a throw forward of Rs.16153 crore for ongoing projects. Most of the projects are likely to be completed by 2015-16, Ghatowar announced.
On the air connectivity, the Minister stated that Ministry of Civil Aviation has been operating flights from 11 operational airports. Simultaneously, efforts are being also made to operationalise 12 non-operational airports. Ghatowar informed that Airport Authority of India (AAI) has spent Rs 601 crore in 11th plan for development of airport infrastructure in North East region and for 12th plan their budgetary requirement has been projected as Rs. 1833 crore. Proposals for development of Guwahati as hub and improvement of other airports are also being considered.
