Aizawl, Sep 13: Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday that the Northeast region is a growth engine of India and it progressed a lot during the past 11 years.

Inaugurating the ambitious 51.38-km Bairabi-Sairang railway project, flagging off three new trains connecting Aizawl with Delhi, Kolkata and Guwahati and laying the foundation stone and inaugurating multiple development projects worth over Rs 9,000 crore, the Prime Minister said that the Northeast was earlier called a frontier state, now the region has become a front runner.

He said that through the Kaladan Multimodal Transit Transport Project Mizoram and other Northeastern states of India would be connected with the Bay of Bengal.

Kaladan Multimodal Transit Transport Project is a joint India-Myanmar initiative to create a multi-modal transport corridor connecting India's eastern ports to India's Northeast through Myanmar, utilising waterways and roads to bypass the Siliguri Corridor.

The Prime Minister said: “After the Kaladan Multimodal Transit Transport Project becomes operational, trade and tourism would be boosted a lot in the Northeast region. All these plans are part of India’s Act East Policy.”

He said that earlier the political parties were doing vote bank politics in Northeast and due to this attitude the entire region suffered greatly.

“Our attitude, plans and vision are different. We want peace and development of the region. Rail, road, air, waterway connectivities were developed a lot in the region and these would be further developed in the coming days,” the Prime Minister said.

Referring to the GST reforms, he said that taxes were lowered substantially in many products making life easier for common people.

During ‘Operation Sindoor’, India’s armed forces taught lessons to terrorists and the entire world witnessed the power of the country's armed forces and 'Made in India' weapons to help protect the country, the Prime Minister pointed out.

Saturday’s visit is PM Modi's second trip to Mizoram since he became the Prime Minister in 2014. From Aizawl, the Prime Minister would fly to Manipur’s Churachandpur and then to state capital Imphal. In both Churachandpur and Imphal, PM Modi would unveil a total of 31 projects worth Rs 8,500 crore for the state of Manipur and would address public gatherings in both the places.

(IANS)

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