Work on India's biggest hydro-power plant progressing fast: Arunachal CM

Itanagar, Aug 15 (IANS) Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu on Monday said that with the active intervention of the Central government, the work on the 2,000 MW Subansiri Lower, the biggest hydro-project in India, is progressing rapidly.

The Chief Minister said that work on 2,880 MW Dibang projects would also commence very soon.

"People of Dibang Valley district and Lower Dibang Valley district helped a lot for resolving the long pending land acquisition matter for this power project which has paved way for an investment of Rs 30,000 to 40,000 crore in this area," Khandu said after hoisting the national flag on the occasion of the Independence Day in Itanagar.

He said that out of the total installed capacity of power generation of 1,139 MW, 734 MW added during the last 6 years.

According to Khandu, Arunachal Pradesh recorded the second lowest mortality rate in the country during the Covid pandemic with recovery rate consistently being over 99 per cent.

Informing that Rs 450 crore has been allocated for upgradation of 18 district hospitals across the state to make the health system robust, he said that for the first time, drones would be used in health supply chains to deliver vaccines and medicines to distant places, in collaboration with the World Economic Forum.

The 'Medicine from the Sky' programme was launched on Monday morning, with the first sortie of medicines delivered in East Kameng district, he added.

The fact that the Human Resource Gap in the health sector has been brought down to 6 per cent from 33 per cent clearly indicates the priority given by the state government in reforming the health sector in Arunachal Pradesh, the Chief Minister said.

"To tackle the growing menace of drug-addiction in the state, the government has adopted the 'Arunachal Pradesh Policy on Psychoactive Substance' for coordinated efforts.

"We will establish state-of-art treatment and rehabilitation centers at Namsai, Itanagar and Bomdila in addition to significantly increasing the allocation of 'Chief Minister's Nasha Mukti Abhiyan' from Rs 4 crore to Rs 15 crore."

The Chief Minister told the gathering that a Memorandum of Understanding was signed recently between the Arunachal Pradesh government and the Rashtriya Raksha University for establishing a campus at Pasighat in East Siang district which according to him would open opportunities for the youth to join the armed forces and bolster the defence of the region.

Saying that to bolster the air connectivity in the remote regions, the central government has sanctioned development of heliports at Ziro, Daporijo, Tuting, and Walong under Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS-UDAN), the Chief Minister said that plan afoot about the setting up of Advance Landing Grounds in Ziro, Tuting, Mechuka and Vijoynagar to commence fixed wing operations.

Thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for approving the scheme for providing 4G mobile connectivity to 1,683 villages that are remotely located in Arunachal Pradesh by 2023 under the Comprehensive Telecom Development Plan, he said that the Centre has further decided to include more villages under 4G mobile connectivity.

This will bring a tremendous change in people's lives by providing digital empowerment, he stated.

The Chief Minister said that the state government has adopted the revised scheme for surrender cum-rehabilitation of militants in the states for the rehabilitation of misguided youth to facilitate their leaving the path of violence and coming back to mainstream.

An initial allocation of Rs 5 crore has been made towards this scheme, he said.