In a significant development, New Delhi has said that the north-eastern states have registered a drastic increase in the arrivals of domestic and foreign tourists.
The landlocked north-eastern states have witnessed an increase of 22.85 per cent tourist arrival in 2017.
Government statistics said that foreign and domestic tourist arrivals in the north-eastern states have increased from 77.71 lakh in the year 2016 to 95.47 lakh in the year 2017.
“The region has witnessed a sharp 22.85 per cent increase in tourist arrival,” said a government official.
The road and other connectivity in the region have also witnessed a progress.
As per information available, the roads and highways constructed in the north-eastern region in the past four years include 15,187 km of road under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), 1652.86 km of road under Ministry of Road, Transport & Highways and 669.79 km of roads under schemes of North Eastern Council (NEC).
Similarly, the air connectivity in the region has also partially improved.
In 2015, Agartala airport had connectivity to Kolkata, Imphal and Guwahati. And in 2018 the connectivity has increased upto Bangalore.
The Guwahati airport was connected to Kolkata, Delhi, Agartala, Aizwal, Bagdogra, Dibrugarh, Imphal, Jorhat, Silchar, Bangalore, Mumbai, Lilabari and Chennai in 2015.
In 2018 the connectivity of Guwahati airport has been increased to several other cities including Aizwal, Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bhubaneshwar, Bangalore, Mumbai, Kolkata, Cochin, Delhi, Dibrugarh, Hyderabad, Imphal, Agartala, Bagdogra, Lilabari, Silchar, Passighat, Jaipur, Jorhat, Chennai, Nagpur, Pakyong, Patna, Tezpur and Varanasi.
Similarly airports in all other states in the Northeast have also witnessed increase in connectivity.