Budget 2014: Roads in NE will be top priority
To ensure that North-East doesn’t lose out on growth and infrastructure development, the Modi government needs to direct its focus on ‘Roads’, which will give a fillip to both employment and economic stability in the region. Infrastructure deterioration in North-East has reached its boiling point, where something has to change, and what better time to initiate the process than the first budget!
Budget 2014, slated for 10 July, is expected to put special emphasis on road infrastructure in the entire North East region (including the border areas), besides conducting the tough balancing act of ensuring robust growth and offering job opportunities for youths. Although the new government has inherited a treasury in tatters, it cannot rule out the fact that to build strategic ties across the eastern borders, infrastructure in North East requires special attention.
A new awakening
To begin with, the new government is toying with the concept of establishing a new entity, whose focal point will only be on roads, for which a specific budgetary allocation is on the cards. Tapping on the assistance of the multilateral development banks (World Bank and Asian Development Bank), the new government intends to build roads in the states of North East and connect them to Myanmar, promoting regional connectivity.
Better infrastructure will be the key for overall growth of the North East region, apart from tourism. As per market experts, the new government is going to help North East states take a huge leap in infrastructure development, by putting special thrust on road constructions, in the region where China is attempting to shape up inroads. The National Highways Authority of India is endowed with the burdensome task of building highways across the nation, and North East is expected to witness its presence soon.
Roads- A necessity
As per the XIth Five Year Plan and the NER Vision 2020, maintenance, expansion and improvement of the road network from NH road to rural roads, will serve as an important basis for economic development in the North East region (NER). Although, the road network per capita is comparatively higher in NER, in respect to the rest of the nation, the road length per units is significantly low. Hence, construction of roads at all levels in the NER will be the main concern for the Central Government in its interim budget.
It is believed that conducting trade with the neighbouring countries like Bangladesh, Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Laos, would help to revive the economies of the states along the border, and is likely to bring in stability and peace. Hence, if the government intends to build North East as the launching pad for trade into the South East Asia, building infrastructure, starting with construction of roads will be its first step.
