Montek says need to explore power potential of North East

He stressed upon the need to explore the power generation potential of the region from non-fossil fuel.

“The region is rich in hydro potential and if it is developed, then not only will it serve the region’s need but also generate huge surplus that needs to be conveyed to the rest of the nation.”

He, however, touched upon the issues holding back development of some of the planned projects and said that there is a need to speed up the clearances by adopting non-uniform guidelines that are applied across the country, especially in the case of forest clearances.

Neerja Mathur, chairperson Central Electrical Authority, ministry of power told that power projects worth 17,000 MW are awaiting environmental clearances.

Ahluwalia said the plan to make Guwahati the hub of connectivity in the region and connecting it with the rest of the country is going on and by September 2014 the work on three hangars would be completed.

“The principal reason why the shifting of activity for the North East on the part of Air India using Guwahati as a hub did not happen is because the hangars were not complete,” said Ahluwalia.

Civil aviation secretary Ashok Lavasa said, “In the 12th plan it is planned to improve the air connectivity in the region. It is expected that in the next 10 years around Rs 5,000 crore will be spent for infrastructure development in airports in the region.”

The region has witnessed increase in its growth rates. The growth rate of the region stood at over 5 per cent in the 9th plan period, it crossed 6 per cent in the 10th plan and hit a high of 9.9 per cent in the 11th plan period.

The correspondent was in Guwahati on CII’s invitation.