With time overrun due to various factors, and militancy becoming a routine feature with almost all big projects in North-East, the Centre asked the state governments of the region to do their share of job to provide on-site security to the projects, and in return assured its support and assistance.
“Due attention will be paid to provision of security of projects under implementation, so that there are no slippages. State governments were requested to make suitable arrangements so that personnel working on the projects feel safe and protected enough to work on the projects unhindered,” said KM Chandrasekhar, cabinet secretary.
Chandrasekhar held a day-long meeting in Guwahati with chief secretaries of all the eight North-Eastern states, including Sikkim, to review progress of major infrastructure projects relating to foodgrains and petroleum products storage projects as well as major roads and railway projects in North-East. Chandrasekhar was accompanied by the secretaries and other senior officials from concerned ministries and departments of the central government.
In order to ensure timely compliance, it was decided that each chief secretary will set up a committee headed by him, for each of the four sectors, comprising secretaries of the concerned state departments as well as representatives of the concerned ministries and departments of central government to monitor and ensure smooth completion of the projects.
Chandrasekhar said that the central government was committed at removing existing blocks and bottlenecks to ensure that the momentum of development in North-East is maintained and even accelerated.
The frequent disruptions in movement of essential commodities for various reasons in several states of North-East in recent months had highlighted the critical need to ensure adequate rail and road network, besides adequate storage facilities both for foodgrains and petroleum products. Hence, these four sectors, viz.; foodgrains storage projects, petroleum products storage projects as well as road and railway projects, were chosen for the present review.
The cabinet secretary suggested the state governments to maintain greater coordination with the ministry of railways and the national highways for implementation of various railway and highway projects that had been sanctioned but implementation have been rather tardy due to various issues.
Chandrasekhar said that in-principle approval had been granted by the Centre for augmentation of foodgrains storage capacity in North-East by 5.25 lakh tonne through construction of additional depots by the Food Corporation of India (FCI), which would more than double the existing storage capacity of 4.58 lakh tonne. Similarly, for petroleum products storage, the chief secretary said that an augmentation plan was underway by the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), involving an investment of around Rs 500 crore, to be completed over the next three years, which would help to almost double the capacity of all petroleum products, particularly, LPG.
Last week, Chandrasekhar met industry associations in which the associations expressed their concerns relating to policy matters for North-East, slow pace of certain on-going infrastructure projects, need for better connectivity to the South East Asian countries and issues relating to the tea industry.
