October 9, 2020: The Centre has increased funding for road development in the Northeast by 95% from Rs 390 crore to Rs 760 crore, seeking to reinforce infrastructure in the strategic region, especially in border areas.
This is the second consecutive increase of funding for the region in the current fiscal year under the Special Accelerated Road Development Programme in the North East (SARDP-NE). In August, the ministry of road transport and highways increased the allocation from Rs 290 crore to Rs 390 crore.
Until September this financial year, the Centre allocated Rs 6,780 crore for national highways in the Northeastern region, according to transport ministry data.
The government has been trying to reinforce infrastructure in areas considered strategic amid a tense standoff between the Indian and Chinese militaries along the Line of Actual Control in the eastern Ladakh sector since May. The government in August also increased funding for border road development projects and raised the allocation for maintenance of frontier roads, HT reported on August 28.
Funding for road development projects in border areas has been raised from Rs 340 crore to Rs 440 core in the current financial year. The budget for maintenance of border roads has gone up from Rs 120 crore to Rs 220 crore; in June, the ministry of road transport and highways raised the allocation for border road maintenance by four times to Rs 120 crore.
In addition, the transport ministry has also sanctioned Rs 850 crore to the National Highway & Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL) towards expenditure incurred on sanctioned SARDP-NE-related projects during the current financial year.
According to a transport ministry circular reviewed by HT on the revised allocation of funds for expenditure on sanctioned SARDP-NE-related works during the 2020-21 financial year, the allocation to the regional offices of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam has increased from Rs 200 crore and Rs 190 crore, respectively, to Rs 300 crore and Rs 460 crore, taking the total funding for SARDP-NE in the financial year 2020-21 to Rs 760 crore.
SARDP-NE is to be taken up in three parts; Under Phase A, about 4,099 km of roads (3,014 km of national highways and 1,085 km of state roads) are to be improved. The phase is expected to be completed by FY 2023-24, according to the ministry. Phase B covers 3,723 km (2,210 km of NHs and 1,513 km of state roads). The third is the Arunachal Pradesh package involving development of about 2,319 km length of roads (2,205 km of NHs and 114 km of state /general staff /strategic roads) has also been approved by the government. The entire Arunachal Pradesh package is targeted for completion by FY 2023-24.
The government has spent an amount of Rs. 30,315 crore on SARDP-NE including the Arunachal Pradesh Package, so far.
There is a continuous need for revising budgetary support for roads in the Northeast, said Jaijit Bhattacharya, president of the Centre for Digital Economy Policy Research (CDEP).
“It is important to build the road infrastructure in the northeast from three perspectives; It is critical from a military perspective…road and rail linkages are critical to support war efforts,” Bhattacharya said. “It is our moral duty to provide proper connectivity to our citizens in the northeast. And from an economic perspective, it is roads that being prosperity in the region and building these roads also align us to the government’s Act East policy. The roads will help the Northeast connect with the ASEAN markets of Myanmar, Thailand and beyond. However, we need to keep in mind that building roads in the toughest of hills in the world will be many times more expensive than building roads on plains. Hence the need for continuous re-evaluation of budgetary support for the roads.”
“New Delhi’s hectic infrastructure building activities in the northeastern states indicates a new awareness within the country’s decision-making elite that physical connectivity is instrumental in moving from Look East to Act East. While the China threat has clearly quickened the process of building border infrastructure in the northeast, , improved connectivity in the region will bring it closer to the national mainstream, and will dampen several of the region’s local insurgencies,” strategic expert Happymon Jacob, an associate professor of disarmament studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, said.
Source: Hindustan Times
