SHILLONG: Chief Minister Conrad Sangma on Sunday reiterated his proposal for 8-laning of Guwahati- Shillong- Dawki- Sylhet- Chittagong Highway project which will enable transportation and export of materials and minerals from the Northeastern states to the South East Asian countries through Chittagong and will have a transformative impact on the region’s economy.
Addressing the 68th plenary session of the North Eastern Council (NEC) in Guwahati on Sunday, he said another critical project is the Silchar- Mahendraganj- Hili road which also includes a bridge across the river Brahmaputra.
According to him, the road will dramatically reduce the travel time between Northeastern states and the rest of the country, lower the landing costs of materials and make the products, especially the high value perishable agri-horticulture ones, of the North East competitive in the rest of the country.
He said that despite NER’s importance in the provision of eco system services, the region is economically underdeveloped contributing only 2.6 per cent to the Net Domestic Product of the country.
He added that there should be improvement of road, rail and air to alleviate the geographical disadvantage.
Turning to the geographical difficulties, he said the NER is largely landlocked with mountainous terrain and the cost of building and maintaining infrastructure is much higher in the region.
“A recent study by IIT Guwahati has quantified the cost disability for Meghalaya on various parameters. The labour cost in Meghalaya is 47 per cent higher than Odisha.
In comparison to states like Odisha and Madhya Pradesh, the cost of hiring of machinery in Meghalaya is 50 per cent higher. The unit cost of highway projects is also 2.24 times higher than other general category states”, he said.
