Centre allocates Rs 15,905 crore to Northeast; States utilise 62% of funds in 5 years

The Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) has allocated a total of Rs 15,905.86 crore over the past five years to the North Eastern states under major flagship programmes, according to the Revised Estimates. 
The funds were released through schemes including the Prime Minister’s Development Initiative for North East Region (PM-DevINE), Schemes of North Eastern Council (SoNEC), North East Special Infrastructure Development Scheme for both roads and non-road infrastructure, Special Development Packages (SDP), and the North East Entrepreneurs Development Scheme (NEEDS).

During the five-year period from 2020–21 to 2024–25, the Ministry released Rs 9,868.77 crore to states and central agencies. Arunachal Pradesh received Rs1,203 crore, while Assam received the highest amount at Rs 2,306.34 crore. Manipur was allotted Rs717.62 crore, Meghalaya Rs 1,231.93 crore, Mizoram Rs 809.49 crore, Nagaland Rs 1,137.34 crore, Sikkim Rs 763.93 crore and Tripura Rs 702.90 crore. In addition, central agencies received Rs 996.22 crore.

Despite persistent challenges in the region, the overall utilization of these funds by the states has been recorded at 62 percent. Officials attribute the slow pace of expenditure to various structural and geographical hurdles, including short working seasons, difficult terrain, limited land availability, and supply constraints for construction materials.

Fund release proposals are processed only after state governments upload their demand letters along with required documents on the Poorvottar Vikas Setu (PVS) portal. The disbursement of funds is further linked to the states’ financial and physical progress on ongoing projects, as well as their utilisation of previously released tranches.

The Ministry maintains that while progress has been gradual, efforts are underway to improve the execution of development projects across the region, with a focus on simplifying processes and addressing local constraints to accelerate outcomes.