Centre to invest on 3 major projects in Mizoram

Aizawl, Sept 3: With an aim to boost the export economy of the region, the Centre has chalked out a blueprint to invest on four major projects in Mizoram within a couple of years.

Talking to the media persons here, Union Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh said the Union Government had already planned to invest in Mizoram on four areas such as horticulture and allied sectors like bamboo-based industries and set up high-tech land customs stations for border trade with the neighbouring Myanmar and Bangladesh.

According to the blueprint, the Ministry of Commerce will provide assistance to state's horticultural products such as anthurium, passion fruit, ginger and orange, he said adding a cold storage unit at the cost of Rs 8 crore would be set up at Lengpui airport for all perishable goods.

Mr Jairam, who was here for a day tour, also mentioned that the Centre would provide all possible financial and techinical support on the area of bamboo-based industries in the state, where the big grass is available in abandunce, which has the largest cultivation area in the country of more than 9000 sq km.

Apart from this, with the help of National Bamboo Mission, all the technical support would be provided to set up set up country's first pioneering environmental friendly power stations that run on bamboo to help meet the new industrial energy needs, he said while explaining the second project.

About the third one, the Minister also underlined that Centre had already given about Rs 2.5 crore to the Mizoram government to set up a land custom station at Demagiri to improve the border trade with neigbouring Bangladesh.

UNI