By James Khangenbam Imphal 15 March 2023
Indian government is going all out to connect the northeastern part of the country better. As many as 17 airports have been made operational in the northeastern region, India’s Minister for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) G Kishan Reddy said.
Reddy also said the development of a new greenfield airport at Tezu in Arunachal Pradesh, and that of Dibrugarh, Guwahati and Silchar airports in Assam, Imphal airport in Manipur, Barapani airport in Meghalaya and Agartala airport in Tripura are ongoing, reported NDTV.
In the northeastern region, 17 airports have been made operational. Recently Donyi Polo airport (erstwhile Holongi Airport) has been inaugurated in Arunachal Pradesh.
Government of India has formulated a Greenfield Airports Policy, 2008 which provides detailed guidelines, procedures and steps related to construction of Greenfield airports across the country, including in Bihar. Under the GFA Policy, the project proponent- an airport developer or the respective state government willing to establish a Greenfield airport is required to send a proposal to the Ministry of Civil Aviation in the prescribed format for two-stage approval process that is, ‘Site Clearance’ followed by ‘In-Principle’ approval.
Under the GFA policy, Government of India has accorded ‘In-Principle’ approval for setting up of 21 Greenfield Airports namely, Mopa in Goa, Navi Mumbai, Shirdi and Sindhudurg in Maharashtra, Kalaburagi, Vijayapura, Hassan and Shivamogga in Karnataka, Dabra (Gwalior) in Madhya Pradesh, Kushinagar and Noida (Jewar) in Uttar Pradesh, Dholera and Hirasar in Gujarat, Karaikal in Puducherry, Dagadarthi, Bhogapuram and Orvakal (Kurnool) in Andhra Pradesh, Durgapur in West Bengal, Pakyong in Sikkim, Kannur in Kerala and Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh across the country.
Out of these, 11 Greenfield airports like Durgapur, Shirdi, Kannur, Pakyong, Kalaburagi, Orvakal (Kurnool), Sindhudurg, Kushinagar, Itanagar, Mopa and Shivamogga have been operationalised.
Government of India has also granted the first stage clearance that is, site clearance for construction of three Greenfield airports namely Alwar in Rajasthan, Singrauli in Madhya Pradesh and Mandi in Himachal Pradesh.
Coming back to northeast India, referring to the railway projects, Reddy said new projects worth Rs 19,855 crore have been sanctioned for constructing railway tracks of 864.7 km since 2014-15 till date.
Presently, 20 projects, for new lines as well as doubling, costing Rs 74,485 crore for 2,011 km length falling fully or partly in the northeastern region are at different stages of planning or approval or execution, he said.
Out of these, 321 km has been commissioned and for which an expenditure of Rs 26,874 crore has been incurred, he said.
Several infrastructure development projects have been taken up by the ministries and departments concerned of the central government in the Northeastern Region (NER), which, include road connectivity.
Major ongoing capital road connectivity projects in NER include the fourlaneing of Dimapur-Kohima Road (62.9 km) in Nagaland; the four-laneing of Nagaon bypass to Holongi (167 km) in Arunachal Pradesh; alternate two-lane highway from Bagrakote to Pakyong (NH-717A) (152 km) in Sikkim; two laneing of Aizawl – Tuipang NH-54 (351 km) in Mizoram; four laneing of Imphal–Moreh section of NH-39 (20 km) and two-laneing of 75.4 km in Manipur among others, he said.
