June 10, 2012

The Government of India has sought 1.5 billion US Dollars from the World Bank for implementing a part of the comprehensive plan to improve power transmission and distribution infrastructure in the North-Eastern region. The World Bank is also discussing with the Government of India for the development of water resources in the North-East.

World Bank sources told The Assam Tribune that the Government of India has prepared a comprehensive scheme to augment the existing transmission and distribution infrastructure to facilitate increased availability of power, improve reliability and service across the North-East states. The network expansion scheme is part of the Government’s wider efforts to develop energy resources in the North-East for supply of electricity inside and outside the region.

The plan is to strengthen and augment the intra-state transmission and distribution network in six states of North-East, development of institutional capacities for efficient and sustainable operation of the power sector etc. The six states proposed by the Government under the funding request are Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura.