What 15K Crore Road Projects Can Mean for NE?

By: Subhadeep Bhattacharjee

North Eastern states of Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Sikkim and Manipur are at the bottom of the table as far as road density (kilometre per square kilometre) is concerned. The story isn’t anything to cheer about it even in the case of states such as Nagaland, Assam and Tripura where figures are better than the national average. Major share of the road in these states aren’t surfaced making them unusable during the monsoons. It is often said that development rides on communication and connectivity, and poor infrastructure has been one of the main reasons behind the sorry state of affairs in the region. It has led to underdevelopment which has sown the seeds for ethnic conflicts. These problems together with militancy have further dented the prospects of development and job creation in the region. Limited investments by a few entrepreneurs have earned little dividends and even these continue to dry up leading to huge brain drain to other parts of the country.....Read More