FM's Rs.500 Crore Package For NER
The Union Finance Minister in his Budget Speech for 2008-09 announced to set apart a sum of Rs.500 crore (subsequently enhanced to Rs.586.20 crore) for North Eastern Region (NER), especially for Arunachal Pradesh and other border areas facing special problems that cannot be tackled through normal schemes. This is called Social and Infrastructure Development Fund (SIDF). It is a one-time package that covers projects, prioritized by the State Governments as per their requirement, which, inter alia, include construction of new roads and bridges, re-establishment of new sub-stations/transmission lines, construction/upgradation of hospitals, establishment of schools, water supply projects etc. A total of 37 projects have been approved against the funds available under SIDF and Rs.493.69 crores have been released so far.