Our Reporter
Dimapur, Dec. 11 (EMN): The Centre has allocated INR 1510 crore for north-eastern states under the North-East Special Infrastructure Development Scheme (NESIDS), against which 55 projects costing INR 1765.12 crore have been sanctioned so far.
The excess in the cost is on account of adjustment for savings which accrued in the erstwhile scheme of Non- Lapsable Central Pool of Resources (NLCPR), which has been restructured as NESIDS, informed an update from the Ministry of Development of North-East Region (DoNER) on December 11.
A total of nine projects costing INR 177.75 crore have been sanctioned for Nagaland under NESIDS. Assam received the biggest share with eight projects costing INR 458 crore; Arunachal Pradesh, INR 312.71 crore (16 projects); Manipur, INR 191.74 crore (8 projects); Meghalaya, INR 174.81 crore (6 projects); Mizoram, INR 181.97 (3 projects); Sikkim, INR 103.31 crore (2 projects); and Tripura, INR 164.83 crore (3 projects).
"The sanctioning of the projects under NESIDS began in 2018-19. Normally, the completion period of a project is 2-3 years from the date of sanction, however, it varies from project to project," read the press release.
According to the Ministry of DoNER, the state governments require to constitute a state-level Empowered Committee (SLEC) chaired by the chief secretary of the state and composed of planning, finance and other concerned secretaries of the state government as deemed necessary by the state as members.
The objective of NESIDS is to ensure focused development of the Northeast region by providing financial assistance for projects of physical infrastructure relating to water supply, power, connectivity and especially the projects promoting tourism. NESIDS also caters to the social sector for the creation of an infrastructure in the areas of primary and secondary sectors of education and health.
NESIDS will be over and above the existing schemes of the government of India and state governments of the Northeast region. Only those projects, which are not supported under any other scheme of central or state government, will be considered for funding under the scheme.