Look East Policy
NEC mulls on development projects:
Imphal: Manipur government representatives who attended the 56th North Eastern Council meeting which concluded on Tuesday at Agartala drew the attention of the council and the Central government to the need for looking into the Look East Policy of the country.
They urged all concerned to give a major thrust to the development of the Imphal airport, National Highways-39, 53, 150, Trans Asian Highway, border trading point at Moreh and Jiribam to Tupul railway line, an official source said.
In the meeting, Manipur urged for upgradation of the Imphal airport into an international airport with cold storage facilities stating that the airport would soon have night landing facilities.
They also urged for improvement of the three national highways which run across the state into four-lane roads for easy flow of heavy vehicular traffic.
The state highways and border roads also need to be strengthened and improved to meet trade and commercial requirements, they said while urging the Centre to provide adequate funds within a period of five years for upgradation and improvement of three critical roads.
On the proposed Trans Asian Highway connecting Moreh in Manipur to Moesot in Thailand via Bagan in Myanmar, the state put down for speeding up of the implementation of the scheme considering the urgent need for successful implementation of the Look East Policy which was also approved in the two-day long NEC meeting.
For enhancing trade and export with the ASEAN countries, the border trading point at Moreh needs good road connectively, said the officials of the state while asking for the upgradation of the NH- 39.
Support for other trade related infrastructure from Assistance to States for Infrastructure Development Enterprises and related matter (ASIDE) under the ministry of commerce is also needed, they said.
The railway line from Jiribam to Tupul is coming up presently, they informed expressing the need for a plan to connect Tupul to Moreh which would be the backbone of the future Asian railways and also proposed a rail link from Jiribam in Manipur to Hanoi in Vietnam via Moreh.
The telecom network in the state also needs to be vastly improved as frequent difficulties in connecting stations outside the state are experienced by the state, they said.
The need for urgent improvement of telecom connection between Imphal and Moreh and optical fibre link to Tamu in Myanmar was also proposed in the meeting, the source said.
The Look East Policy had opened investment opportunities for the north eastern states and Manipur intended to improve the economic condition of the north east states with the coming of this policy, it said.
The economy of the north-east region was historically very closely inter-linked with South Asian countries like Myanmar and Bangladesh even though the partition of the country in 1947 had changed these historical links.
Manipur is a natural corridor to Myanmar and to the rest of South East Asia and opening of the border trade pact in Moreh has begun to restore a bilateral trade between Manipur and Myanmar.
The state also urged for more emphasis to an airlink with Myanmar which would serve as an excellent potential link between north east India and South East Asia. A flight between Imphal and Chiangmai in Thailand would take only one hour, it said.
The state Governor, chief minister and other concerned officials of the state government participated in the two-day NEC meeting.
Source: The Imphal Free Press
Imphal: Manipur government representatives who attended the 56th North Eastern Council meeting which concluded on Tuesday at Agartala drew the attention of the council and the Central government to the need for looking into the Look East Policy of the country.
They urged all concerned to give a major thrust to the development of the Imphal airport, National Highways-39, 53, 150, Trans Asian Highway, border trading point at Moreh and Jiribam to Tupul railway line, an official source said.
In the meeting, Manipur urged for upgradation of the Imphal airport into an international airport with cold storage facilities stating that the airport would soon have night landing facilities.
They also urged for improvement of the three national highways which run across the state into four-lane roads for easy flow of heavy vehicular traffic.
The state highways and border roads also need to be strengthened and improved to meet trade and commercial requirements, they said while urging the Centre to provide adequate funds within a period of five years for upgradation and improvement of three critical roads.
On the proposed Trans Asian Highway connecting Moreh in Manipur to Moesot in Thailand via Bagan in Myanmar, the state put down for speeding up of the implementation of the scheme considering the urgent need for successful implementation of the Look East Policy which was also approved in the two-day long NEC meeting.
For enhancing trade and export with the ASEAN countries, the border trading point at Moreh needs good road connectively, said the officials of the state while asking for the upgradation of the NH- 39.
Support for other trade related infrastructure from Assistance to States for Infrastructure Development Enterprises and related matter (ASIDE) under the ministry of commerce is also needed, they said.
The railway line from Jiribam to Tupul is coming up presently, they informed expressing the need for a plan to connect Tupul to Moreh which would be the backbone of the future Asian railways and also proposed a rail link from Jiribam in Manipur to Hanoi in Vietnam via Moreh.
The telecom network in the state also needs to be vastly improved as frequent difficulties in connecting stations outside the state are experienced by the state, they said.
The need for urgent improvement of telecom connection between Imphal and Moreh and optical fibre link to Tamu in Myanmar was also proposed in the meeting, the source said.
The Look East Policy had opened investment opportunities for the north eastern states and Manipur intended to improve the economic condition of the north east states with the coming of this policy, it said.
The economy of the north-east region was historically very closely inter-linked with South Asian countries like Myanmar and Bangladesh even though the partition of the country in 1947 had changed these historical links.
Manipur is a natural corridor to Myanmar and to the rest of South East Asia and opening of the border trade pact in Moreh has begun to restore a bilateral trade between Manipur and Myanmar.
The state also urged for more emphasis to an airlink with Myanmar which would serve as an excellent potential link between north east India and South East Asia. A flight between Imphal and Chiangmai in Thailand would take only one hour, it said.
The state Governor, chief minister and other concerned officials of the state government participated in the two-day NEC meeting.
Source: The Imphal Free Press
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