Agartala, Jan 23 (IANS) Union Minister for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) Jyotiraditya Scindia on Friday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has brought the ‘Ashtalakshmi’ — the eight states of the Northeast — to the centre stage of India’s development trajectory.
Virtually inaugurating and laying the foundation stone for eight major development projects in Tripura with a total outlay of Rs 365 crore, including an Rs 81-crore solar microgrid project, Scindia said that under PM Modi’s ‘Ashtalakshmi’ vision, the Northeast is no longer merely a geographical frontier but has emerged as an engine of India’s growth.
The projects are expected to give fresh momentum to road connectivity, tourism, energy, and holistic development of tribal areas in the state.
The Union Minister said it has been made mandatory for all 52 Central ministries to allocate 10 per cent of their budgets towards the development of the Northeastern region. He further stated that investments worth nearly Rs 1 lakh crore were made in the Northeast in the last year alone.
Scindia said Tripura has registered a growth rate of 10.5 to 11 per cent over the past decade and has now emerged as a power-surplus state.
Among the projects inaugurated was the establishment of solar microgrids to supply reliable power to 274 remote hamlets, benefiting over 9,700 families in far-flung habitations of Tripura.
In addition, the DoNER Minister virtually inaugurated a veterinary clinical complex at Radha Kishore Nagar in West Tripura and laid the foundation stone for road connectivity projects in North Tripura and Dhalai districts.
All these projects are being funded under the Prime Minister’s Development Initiative for North East Region (PM-DevINE), the North Eastern Council (NEC), and the North East Special Infrastructure Development Scheme (NESIDS-Roads).
Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha, addressing the function held at Pragna Bhavan here, said the DoNER Ministry has constituted several high-level task forces to identify key interventions and formulate actionable short-, medium- and long-term strategies for integrated development of the North East Economic Corridor.
The task forces were constituted following the 72nd plenary session of the NEC, held in November 2024 in Agartala and presided over by Union Home Minister Shah.
Highlighting investment momentum in the Northeast, Saha said that during last year’s Investors’ Summit in Delhi, inaugurated by PM Modi, investment proposals worth Rs 30,000 crore were received, of which around Rs 15,000 crore pertained to Tripura alone, owing to the prevailing peace and stability in the state.
DoNER Minister Scindia arrived in Tripura on Friday on a three-day visit to the Northeastern state. During his tour, he will inaugurate several infrastructure and development projects across different districts relating to tourism, roads, and religious and cultural heritage. These projects are being funded under PM-DevINE, NESIDS-Roads and NEC.
