Govt expanding rail, air connectivity to North East

New Delhi: The government is working to expand rail, road and air connectivity to northeastern region and projects for 14 new rail lines, four gauge conversion and two doubling projects have been taken up, Rajya Sabha was informed today. In a written reply, Minister for Development of North Eastern Region Paban Singh Ghatowar said 367.17 km of new rail lines has been completed in North Eastern Region and gauge conversion of 1580.83 km has been done since 2002-03.[caption id=“attachment_1070173” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Minister for Development of North Eastern Region Paban Singh Ghatowar. Image courtesy PIB[/caption] “Special programmes taken up for development of raods in North East includes East-West Corridor (670 km) and special accelerated road development programme/Phase A (4099 km),” he said. On air connectivity, he said average number of departures per week from North Eastern Airports has increased from 226 in 201 to 581 in 2011. However, time overruns have occurred in a number of national projects of Railways in the region, he said. PTI