North Eastern Council: Eradicating Underdevelopment Through Improved Infrastructure

The North Eastern Council (NEC) was constituted by the Act of the Parliament in 1971. It is the nodal agency for the socio-economic development of the North Eastern Region in India. This region consists of eight states of India:

Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Sikkim, Nagaland and Tripura. The NEC was established for the development of these eight states. It marks the beginning of a new chapter for a planned and intensive all-round effort for a speedy development of this part of the country.

The NEC: Removing Backwardness for Rapid Development of the Region

On December 18, 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the Golden Jubilee celebrations of the North Eastern Council in Shillong. In the NEC meeting, Prime Minister Modi appreciated the work undertaken during the last 50 years and he also directed the NEC members to set their goals for the development of this region in the coming 25 years.

He urged the council to draw a detailed plan aimed to remove the backwardness of this region and usher in rapid development of the region.

Formation of North Eastern Council: For Social and Economic Development

The North Eastern Council was formed by a Parliamentary Act called the North Eastern Council Act, 1971. It is set up as an advisory body to plan for the social and economic development of the 8 states coming under the NEC.

The NEC started its operations in 1972. The NEC consists of the Governors and the Chief Ministers of the 8 member states, along with that the President of India nominates the Chairman and three other members.

Functions of North Eastern Council: Provide Guidance for a Unified and Coordinated Regional Plan

The NEC discusses matters with the concerned state or states of the council with regard to the matters pertaining to be of common interest to states and then provides its guidance and observations to the Central Government and the State Governments in matters, such as economic and social planning, inter-state transport and communications, power and flood control projects.

It also formulates and presents a unified and coordinated regional plan that is in addition to the state plan with respect to matters of common importance to that region and prioritizes the projects and schemes in the regional plan and recommends the location of the projects to the Central Government.

Removed Obstacles in the Path of the Economic Progress of the Region

During the last 50 years of the NEC, various development works were initiated, marking a new beginning for the region. The NEC removed all the obstacles that were hindering the economic progress of this region. It influenced and provided an opportunity to these states to remove backwardness and utilise its full potential for the development of the region.

Improved Rail, Road and Air Connectivity

The NEC was focused on improving the connectivity of the region with the other parts of the country that has always been the major bottleneck to carry out any development activities. The inter-state connectivity of the region improved immensely with the efforts of the NEC.

With the funding from NEC, around 10,500 km of roads were constructed and these roads were handed to the member states for maintenance. Furthermore, the NEC has supported for the installation of 694.5 MW of power plants as well as for the construction of 2,540.41 km of transmission and distribution lines.

Since its inception, the NEC was involved in the upgradation and strengthening of the infrastructure of the existing airports in these regions. In collaboration with Airport Authority of India, the NEC improved the infrastructure of 5 major airports, namely, Guwahati, Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Imphal and Umroi. These airport projects under the NEC funding are at various stages of its co

completion, with some already completed and others at the advanced stages of completion.
With the active support of concerned Ministries and Departments of the Central Government, the NEC has taken up several activities to boost the infrastructure of this region, improving air connectivity, road connectivity, rail connectivity, waterway connectivity, telecom connectivity and power connectivity.

Growth of Tourism, Industries and Educational Institutions

With the active support of the Central Government in completing the big infrastructure projects at the central level presented a new dimension to the infrastructure of this region, which provided immense opportunity for the growth of tourism in this region, the development of many small-scale industries and the opening of world-class educational institutions and sports-related institutions.