From Periphery To Powerhouse: How India's Northeast Is Being Transformed By Data-Backed Development

Here's the reality about India's Northeast: the development story is no longer aspiration, it's arithmetic. Over the past decade, Delhi has moved from episodic grants to a sustained, multi-modal build-out that is visibly compounding in roads, rails, air links, digital fibre, water, and social infrastructure. The direction of travel is clear and the data are unambiguous.

Start with money. The Union Budget 2025–26 raised the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) allocation by ~47%, from Rs40.06 billion in 2024–25 (RE) to Rs59.15 billion, signalling continuity of capital in a geography where project cycles are long and terrain is unforgiving. The PM-DevINE window itself carries a scheme outlay of Rs66 billion, targeted at last-mile connectivity and livelihoods.

Connectivity is where the needle has moved the most. On highways, India's NH network has grown 60% since 2014 (from ~91,287 km to ~1,46,200 km), with a notable push via NHIDCL across the Northeast. Region-wide, the NH network has expanded by over 5,300 km in 11 years to exceed 15,000 km as of June 2025. In Arunachal alone, the Trans-Arunachal spine is nearing completion, while the 1,748-km Frontier Highway (NH-913) has multiple packages under way. These are not just lines on a map; the 9.15-km Bhupen Hazarika Setu (Dhola–Sadiya) has already cut hours off logistics and military mobility to the eastern ranges.

Railways are erasing historic gaps. Electrification across the Rajdhani main route in the Lumding–Tinsukia divisions is complete, allowing seamless 25kV operations and shaving time and fuel costs for both freight and passengers. Two capital-connect projects, the Jiribam–Imphal line in Manipur and Dimapur–Kohima in Nagaland are the marquee efforts. As of mid-September 2025, 55.36 km of the Jiribam–Imphal new line is commissioned, with the remaining sections under construction; Railways and DoNER list both corridors among priority projects under PM Gati Shakti. When the Akhaura–Agartala cross-border link (inaugurated in November 2023, 12.24 km) moves to regular operations, Agartala's time-distance to Kolkata will shrink dramatically, tying Tripura (and southern Mizoram) into Bay of Bengal trade funnels via Bangladesh.

Aviation has gone from symbolic to systemic. Under UDAN, India has operationalised 625 regional routes nationwide, connecting 90 airports/heliports/waterdromes and expanding the overall airport network from 74 (2014) to 159 (2024). Within the Northeast, the government reports 90 UDAN routes touching 12 airports/heliports across all eight states. The effect shows up in Guwahati's hard metrics: the LGBI hub handled ~6.57 million passengers in FY 2024–25 (up 7.7%), with cargo up ~184% and international traffic at a multi-year high, evidence that the region's air market is maturing beyond point-to-point subsidies.

Gas and energy are the next unlocks. The 1,656-km North East Gas Grid by Indradhanush Gas Grid Ltd (IGGL) is ~85% physically complete, stitching pipelines from Guwahati towards state capitals such as Imphal, Aizawl, Shillong, Agartala and Itanagar. Capacity is envisaged at ~4.75 mmscmd, enough to catalyse city gas, small industry and CNG mobility where diesel has long dominated. Parallelly, Assam's Numaligarh Refinery is in the final lap of a Rs280 billion expansion to triple capacity from 3 to 9 MMTPA by December 2025, with a 1,640-km crude pipeline from Paradip and a new 360-KTPA polypropylene unit approved, anchoring a petrochemicals cluster in upper Assam and creating export-grade surplus for Bangladesh and the neighbourhood.

Social infrastructure has scaled alongside hard assets. AIIMS Guwahati, Northeast's first was inaugurated in April 2023 and is already providing specialised services (ophthalmology among others) to a 45-million-plus catchment that previously flew to metros for tertiary care. On basic services, Jal Jeevan Mission has transformed household water access; Arunachal Pradesh, for instance, announced 100% rural household tap connections in 2025, a remarkable milestone given its terrain and dispersal.

Digital is the quiet multiplier. BharatNet's backbone now spans 4.213 million route-km of OFC nationally, with 2,18,347 gram panchayats service-ready as of March 2025; FTTH connections have crossed 12.2 lakh and public Wi-Fi hotspots top 1.04 lakh. In far-flung Northeast districts, this is the difference between a market that can adopt e-commerce/tele-medicine/online education and one that cannot.

Security normalisation is a foundational enabler, and it shows in the numbers. The Ministry of Home Affairs reports a 71–76% reduction in insurgency incidents (vs 2014), 60% fewer security force casualties and 82% fewer civilian deaths by 2023. That improvement allowed phased roll-back of AFSPA across large parts of Assam, Nagaland and Manipur since 2022, a virtuous cycle in which roads, jobs and law-and-order reinforce each other.

What does all this add up to economically? Startup India now counts ~900+ DPIIT-recognised startups from the Northeast, creating ~8,800 jobs, with 42% having at least one woman director, an inclusive base that rides on better airports, data pipes and smoother highways. Assam's per capita income has been rising steadily (advance estimate Rs154,000 for 2024–25), with Guwahati emerging as a logistics and aviation node that feeds consumption and services across the Brahmaputra valley and the hill states. The region's NH stock crossing 15,000 km, gas grid nearing commissioning, and refinery-cum-petchem expansion together point to a higher-productivity growth path than the“grant-funded public works” stereotype of the past.

To be sure, there are frictions. The Agartala–Akhaura rail link, though inaugurated in 2023, has seen delays moving to regular service amid Bangladesh's political instability; border trade facilities like Sabroom ICP are ready but await predictable cross-border throughput. Manipur's internal situation has also created headwinds. Yet the macro-architecture, rails to capitals, highways across watersheds, a pan-NE gas grid, digitised service delivery, and recurrent budgetary commitment, remains intact.

The Northeast's development story, then, is not a single ribbon-cutting but a network effect in motion. When a farmer in West Siang can ship perishables faster because Imphal and Dimapur are on the rail map; when a small unit in Tura can switch from diesel gensets to piped gas; when a patient in Dibrugarh can access AIIMS-grade care without a Delhi flight; when a startup in Aizawl can sell nationwide because BharatNet and UDAN have reached, growth becomes embedded, not episodic. India has finally matched“Act East” rhetoric with the arteries that make economies breathe. The job now is to keep the taps open: finish the last 50 km of strategic rail, push the gas grid to commissioning, keep highway maintenance funded in a monsoon-heavy region, and ensure cross-border protocols with Bangladesh turn infrastructure into commerce. On current evidence, the Northeast's curve is bending up, and this time, the numbers back the narrative.

Rishi Suri is a commentator on political and current affairs. He has previously served as the media adviser to the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister.

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