Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Jan 5: Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh today announced the introduction of an exclusive road construction agency for Northeast which would be known as “North-East Road Sector Development Scheme” (NERSDS) and would primarily focus on inter-State roads, popularly referred to as “orphan” roads connecting one State with the other and often found to be neglected.
Dr Jitendra Singh was speaking after formally releasing DoNER Ministry’s Northeast Calendar for 2016 which is based on the theme “Rising Northeast” and depicts developmental activities in eight different States of the region.
Elaborating on the new initiative of DoNER Ministry to develop the road sector, Dr Jitendra Singh said that NERSDS is unique of its kind and perhaps the first of its kind introduced with the primary objective of promoting inter-State roads in the region which were earlier being maintained randomly by different agencies including the North-Eastern Council (NEC). He said, the first meeting of the Inter-Ministerial Committee for this scheme was held recently in which five neglected inter-State roads were recommended for funding, which include Daimukh-Harmuti Road in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, Tura-Mankachar Road in Assam, Assam portion of Sherkhan-Bagha Bazar Road, Wokha-Merapani-Golaghat Road in Nagaland and Assam and Jamai-Taning Road in Manipur. The National Highway Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd. (NHIDCL) will be the project implementing agency for the road projects undertaken by NERSDS, he informed.
With a series of new initiatives planned for 2016, Dr Jitendra Singh expressed confidence that the Modi government will be able to change the very face of the region during the next one year and added that, although being a Ministry primarily concerned with developmental projects, the DoNER has virtually set out to own the North-Eastern region and address diverse issues related to the region. It is for this reason, he said, that he has himself been travelling to Northeast whenever there was a sudden adverse situation or calamity like floods, violence or earthquake and referred to his visit to Manipur yesterday, within hours of an earthquake having struck the region.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is keeping a personal track of the development activities in North-Eastern region. Even during the month of January, he disclosed, the Prime Minister is scheduled to visit Sikkim and Assam.
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