New Delhi/Imphal, June 12 (IANS) Manipur Chief Minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh said on Friday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi regards the Northeast as the “Growth Engine of India” and has envisioned the region as ‘Ashtalakshmi’, asserting that accelerated development remains the most effective means to eliminate insurgency, unrest and instability in the state.

Addressing the NITI Aayog’s meeting with Chief Ministers of eight Northeastern states in Delhi, the Chief Minister called upon the NITI Aayog to play a decisive role in the Manipur’s economic recovery, peace-building efforts and long-term development.

He noted that Manipur has suffered greatly in economically, socially and developmentally in the last few years and said that the NITI Aayog has a big role to play in the development of the Northeast region as a whole and Manipur in particular.

The Chief Minister sought NITI Aayog’s help in planning economic recovery, coordinating with Ministries, and engaging international partners.

During the interaction, Chief Minister Singh highlighted that connectivity is one of the most important sectors where Manipur needs sustained and major investments.

“Major projects such as Railway connection to Imphal, National Highway projects connecting Imphal to the rest of the country, airport terminal expansion, among others, need early completion and these projects have the potential to change the developmental landscape of Manipur,” he said.

He also urged the NITI Aayog to support projects like the Imphal Ring Road Project, elevated highway in Imphal, Imphal-Moreh (along Myanmar) Railway Project.

The Chief Minister said that the ‘Act East Policy’ envisions Manipur as India’s main land-based gateway to Southeast Asia, the actual execution of projects frequently faces delays due to cross-border political instability and other related challenges.

This has led to a persistent implementation gap, he added.

To address this, Chief Minister Singh requested the NITI Aayog to set up a high-level “Act Fast Implementation Unit” tasked with shielding critical cross-border logistics infrastructure from localised disruptions.

The Chief Minister also proposed the NITI Aayog to establish an ‘Act East Regional Coordination Cell’ in collaboration with the North Eastern Council, bringing together Northeastern states to regularly synchronise border, logistics, and security policies.

He said that medical colleges in the state like Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) and Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences (JNIMS) require substantial modernisation and there is huge potential for providing treatment to patients from South East Asia, especially Myanmar.

He added that NITI Aayog could help by coordinating with the Ministry of Health to develop a Super-Specialty Tertiary Care Expansion Framework in Manipur, so that Manipur could become a ‘Medical Tourism Hub’ catering to patients from Southeast Asia.

The Chief Minister said that internal security challenges and civil friction create a risk premium which heavily discourages private investment and inflates the construction and maintenance costs of projects in the state.

He sought NITI Aayog’s support in designing a special fiscal incentive framework that provides Vulnerability Gap Funding (VGF) for infrastructure projects facing security issues.

He also added that the same financial allocations under various central schemes yield significantly less physical infrastructure in the Northeastern region and Manipur, compared to many parts of the country, due to the region’s difficult and hilly terrain.

He suggested that NITI Aayog could assist by helping to formulate a Terrain-Weighted Cost Index Matrix, granting Northeastern states a 20–30 per cent fiscal premium for central fund distributions to offset geographic barriers.

Chief Minister Singh said that Manipur relies heavily on central grants, with its own tax revenue making up only about 10 per cent of revenue receipts, thereby severely constraining its independent developmental funding.

He added that NITI Aayog could help by preparing a roadmap to enhance the state’s fiscal capacity, with specific interventions such as Fiscal Stabilisation Grant, flexibility in central scheme funding, and leveraging funding and technical assistance from multilateral development banks.

The Chief Minister thanked the NITI Aayog for arranging the meeting and expressed his belief that the deliberations would contribute towards making a ‘Viksit Manipur’, ‘Viksit North East’, and ‘Viksit Bharat @ 2047’.

The interaction was attended by NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Ashok Kumar Lahiri, Chief Ministers of eight Northeastern states, members of the NITI Aayog, Chief Secretaries of all Northeastern states, officials of NITI Aayog and state governments.

–IANS

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