Ministry of DoNER and Government of Sikkim in collaboration with North Eastern Council organized a symposium on “Urban Development in North Eastern States: Smart City Revolution ” on Saturday here at Gangtok, Sikkim. The programme was held as a part of the North East Fest-2022 under Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav (AKAM) being organized by the Ministry of DoNER, Government of India celebrating India’s 75 years of Independence.
Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs and Petroleum and Natural Gas while gracing the occasion as Chief Guest said that Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav has given an opportunity to the whole country to join together to celebrate to mark the 75th year of India’s Independence. He showed his pleasure over the commitment demonstrated by North Eastern cities in contributing to collective mission nation-building, and spiritedly participating in symposiums such as these.
Detailing the unique characteristics of North Eastern states, he said that the region has a rich cultural legacy anchored in abundant natural resources, skilled and available human capital, tourism, and extraordinary biodiversity. By developing robust infrastructure and services over the last eight years, the massive potential of the region has finally been unlocked. With a growing number of food parks, textile industry, and information technology, North East has the potential to be the trade link between India and South East Asia in the years to come. He expressed his happiness to announce that the consensus to amend the funding pattern to 90:10, will ensure completion of many a project.
Union Minister told that the period of past five years especially, underpinned by the ‘Look and Act East Policy’ has been transformational. The BJP-led Government is committed to connect North East India through infrastructure and technology. The North Eastern states have become India’s areas of high growth that can fuel India’s push towards an ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’. Policies for the North East are planned and executed with razor-sharp precision prioritising the needs of the region, he added.
Hardeep Singh Puri said that the PM himself has visited the region more than 30 times, including a couple of days ago in Assam to inaugurate important healthcare projects to benefit the entire region. In the last eight years, a total of Rs.18,849 crore has been fully utilised for development projects in power, water supply, health, connectivity and education sectors. In the Budget 2022, the Finance Minister had announced a new scheme–Prime Minister’s Development Initiative for North-East (PM-DevINE) to be implemented by the North Eastern Council. With an initial allocation of Rs.1500 crores, this scheme will fund infrastructure-guided by the PM Gati Shakti mission-and social development projects based on the felt needs of the North East.
Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs further added that the South Asian Sub-Regional Economic Cooperation (SASEC) road connectivity programme will also help in making the region more connected and accessible to the rest of the country. He said that a total of 523 projects worth Rs.13563 crores are in various stages of development in the 10 cities of the North East region and 121 projects worth Rs. 1,553 crores had been completed with another 268 projects worth Rs. 8,507 crores under implementation.
He told that the Smart Cities Mission is one part of an integrated vision of urban transformation and modernisation in the country, including in the North East where rapid urbanisation is being witnessed. Other flagship programmes of the Government of India have also produced fundamental and sweeping changes in the urban areas of North Eastern India. Missions such as AMRUT, Swachh Bharat Mission–Urban (SBM-U) and Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana–Urban (PMAY-U) are vital interventions in establishing a high level of basic civic infrastructure in North Eastern cities. He congratulated Sikkim for being the first State in the region to implement OBPS in the region.
He launched Online Building Permission System (OBPS) on the occasion. This intervention will make a significant difference in the quality of provision of urban services is the adoption of OBPS.
Arun Kumar Upreti, Minister for Urban Development, Food and Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, Sikkim Govt. while addressing the gathering as guest of honour pondered over aspects of urban development in the NE Region.
MT Lepcha, Secretary Urban Development, Sikkim welcomed the dignitaries and mulled over the need of systematic urban development for a safer future in the North Eastern States.
In the first half three technical sessions were held to make the participants aware of the need of systematic and smart urban development by teaching faculties of IIT, Kharagpur. Prof. Subroto Chattopadhyay, Prof. Haimanti Banerjee and Prof. Arkapal Goswami deliberated upon various aspects of the need of urban development in North Eastern States in the light of Smart City Revolution.
A video presentation on Smart City Project under North East Smart Cities was also made during the programme.
It is important to mention here that all the eight North Eastern States are celebrating the North East Festival as part of the celebration of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav (AKAM), which began on a high enthusiastic note from the 28th April and will culminate on 04th May, 2022 at Guwahati. Various events are being conducted as part of the main celebration in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura. Thematic events are being organized by each state during the period will help in accelerating development of NER. Besides, as a part of Jan Bhagidhari (Peoples’ participation)–various activities are being carried out from States to Districts to Block levels in entire North East.
Gay Tshering Dhungel, MLA and Advisor, Infrastructure Development, Neil Bahadur Chettri, Honourable Mayor, Gangtok Municipal Corporation, Umesh Kumar, Director (DoNER) and Satyen Lama, Director Planning (North Eastern Council) were prominent among others who attended the function.
NE India Broadcast is a news and media platform, with focus on the Northeastern states comprising of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura, Sikkim and Eastern Region West Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha. You can email us at : neindiabroadcast2021@gmail.com or office@neindiabroadcast.com