India's highway plans

Creation date: 24 July 2008

India will invest 310 billion rupees ($7.2 billion) by 2012 to build roads in its troubled northeast, improving internal connectivity and with China, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan, prime minister Manmohan Singh has said. "An ambitious programme of road building has been taken up under the Special Accelerated Road Development Programme and Rs 31,000 crore is being invested in roads in the 11th Five Year Plan period. There are relaxed guidelines for rural roads under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana so that even the farthest hamlets on the border are linked by road,” he said.
 
"Infrastructure deficiency remains a major concern of the government,'' Singh said while releasing the Vision 2020 document for the region. "Our government has made connectivity and infrastructure the cornerstone of regional development in the northeast.''
 
Not only are the eight provinces of the region Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura underdeveloped but they are politically restive not something the Indian government wants especially given its sometimes sensitive relationship with its neighbours especially China. "Infrastructure deficiency remains a major concern of the government,'' Singh said while releasing the Vision 2020 document for the region. "Our government has made connectivity and infrastructure the cornerstone of regional development in the northeast.''

Source: World Highway