Nagaland minister and state BJP president Temjen Imna Along on Monday claimed that the northeastern state was on the track of development and progress under the saffron party’s government at the Centre helmed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Addressing a press conference on the nine years of the Modi government, he said the Centre is committed to equitable development of all regions of the state.

He claimed that the Modi government is committed to serving the underserved, empowering women, providing opportunities to the youth and celebrating the farmer.

Along claimed that while Rs 2 lakh crore was spent on infrastructural projects in the Northeast from Independence till 2014, the Modi government has spent Rs 7 lakh crore on it in the last eight years.

He said that Look East Policy has been rechristened as Act East Policy, while AFSPA has been withdrawn from large parts of Northeast and the Fifteenth Finance Commission has given Nagaland a grant of Rs 4,773 crore in 2022-23, up from Rs 1,283 crore in 2009-10.

After a gap of 100 years, Nagaland got its second railway station along the Dhansari-Shokhuvi line in the form of Shokhuvi, while the 82-km-long broad-gauge route from Dhansiri in Assam to Zubza in Kohima is being built by the government, he said.

Along said that recently, 15 National Highway projects have been inaugurated in Nagaland covering a length of 266 km. The projects will cost a total of Rs 4,127 crore.

He said the Centre has completed 53 infrastructure projects in Nagaland since 2015, and is in the process of completing 142 more.