PM chairs meeting with CMs from North-Eastern States The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi today chaired a meeting with the Chief Ministers of the North Eastern states. The meeting was attended among others by the Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley, Vice Chairman NITI Aayog Shri Arvind Panagariya, Chief Ministers of Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura and Finance Minister of Mizoram. Speaking on the occasion, the Prime Minister emphasized and reiterated the resolve of the Union Government to ensure rapid and sustainable development of the region. The Chief Ministers were briefed on infrastructure initiatives taken up by the Union Government in the NE region through a NITI Aayog presentation. There has been a significant ramp-up in infrastructure investments by the Government of India in the North East since Sri Narendra Modi took over as Prime Minister. Under SARDPNE (Special Accelerated Road Development Programme for the North-East), Rs 35000 Crore is proposed to be invested to develop the Trans-Arunachal Highway and for connecting all district headquarters by a 2 lane highway (about 6400 Km). New rail network is being created in addition to strengthening the existing network at a cost of Rs 57000 Crore. Similarly investments are being taken up by the Telecom, Power, Civil Aviation and Shipping ministries in order to improve the connectivity - air, road, rail and internet - of the region, internally as well as externally under the Act East policy of the Union Government. It was agreed that the Empowered Committees (led by the State Chief Secretaries) constituted pursuant to the decision of the NITI Governing Council need to be even more proactive in monitoring the implementation of these infrastructure projects and remove bottlenecks in order that time and cost overruns can be avoided.
