Role of Civil Aviation in the Development of North Eastern Regions

This is an essay i wrote in 2007 for the Civil Aviation Ministry. I won the prize for the best essay.  I am sharing it now for everyone to read.

Role of Civil Aviation in Development of North Eastern Region

North Eastern India is the easternmost region of India consisting of the contiguous Seven Sister States and the state of Sikkim. This region is a misshapen strip of land, linked to the rest of the country by a narrow corridor just 20 kms wide at its slimmest, which is referred to as the “Siliguri Corridor” or "Chicken's Neck". Owing to its geographical isolation from the rest of India and the relative primitiveness of the tribal societies existing here, the region has remained virtually cut off from the rest of India. From time immemorial till the near eclipse of the British Raj, and even to this day, this situation of isolation has continued in one form or the other.

Given the topography and inaccessibility of the region, the civil aviation industry can play a major role in integrating this region with the mainland and bring in a sense of belonging to the nation as a whole. The resulting connectivity would alleviate the fear in the minds of the people of the north east that they are left to fend for themselves and that their problems is seen by Delhi as national issue in a broader sense rather than a local issue.

 Apart from this, the biodiversity, a vibrant culture and a sense of aura attached to the north east can promise immense opportunity to the economic development of this region by connecting it to mainstream India.

The aviation sector till recently has been playing a passive role, dominated by the national airlines and the armed forces for maintaining basic connectivity, essential supplies and relief during the times of crises or emergencies. It was never seen as a commercially viable entity. Things are improving slowly with liberalization and the entry of private players.

The three major areas of national and local significance in which the influence of the civil aviation industry can have a major impact are as follows:

• Tourism & Culture
• Higher Education
• Trade and Commerce

Tourism & Culture:

The North East with its geographical and ecological diversity is a place of magical beauty. North-East India is exceptional in many ways. Unlike other tourist destinations of the country the North East presents conditions to attract tourists throughout the year. The region has a temperate climate and is comparatively cooler than the mainland India and can be projected as the complete destination for visitors during the summer months. Winters too are not that severe in most parts of the region. The pollution-free environment is an attraction which the North East has in abundance. Its verdant forests, exquisite flora, turbulent streams, lofty mountains and majestic snow clad peaks make it a unique place offering the tourist numerous opportunities for rafting, water skiing, Para-sailing, hiking, mountaineering and jungle camping.

Each region has its own unique natural attraction, The Himalayan range of Arunachal Pradesh with its snowcapped mountains, the worlds' highest rainfall at Sohra (Cherrapunjee) Meghalaya, the one-horned rhino at Kaziranga and Manas, the phenomenon of birds committing suicide in the Jatinga hills are some of the diverse attractions for nature lovers. The North East especially Meghalaya offers thrilling experiences for those interested in cave tourism. Temples are a major attraction of this region like the Buddhist temple of Tawang and the Kamakhya Temple of Hindus etc. At Guwahati, Majuli island at Brahmaputra the biggest River Island of the world is a rare attraction. There are well preserved Churches all over N.E. States. If one is looking for a quiet getaway from the hustle and bustle of city life, one can go to the lush green tea gardens and play golf at one of the numerous golf courses which have air strips attached to them. One can also shop for exquisite textiles, tribal shawls which are available in a variety of colours and designs, cane and bamboo artifacts, and other unusual souvenirs.

The ethnic and the cultural diversity of the people, Raj nostalgia associated with the tea industry, different battle sites of World War-II and the various war cemeteries are some of the other attractions that the region has to offer.

The air link to this region can help immensely in the development of the tourism industry. This would increase the influx of tourists not only from India but also from across the world.  Promotion of tourism will have a development impact over social and economic status of the region. The regional economy would be benefited as tourism encourages allied industries like hospitality, travel, handicrafts etc. Organizing cultural events like the Kanchunjunga Festival, Festival of Tea Tribes at Golaghat would encourage the interaction between the tourists and the locals and promote the culture of the north eastern region. Such events can be organized or sponsored by the operating airlines in the yearly tourism calendar and trips to these events can be offered as a package to the tourists visiting this area.

Marketing Tourism:

• Various airlines can bring out promotional brochures and videos highlighting the tourist hotspots and the itinerary of cultural events in region thereby creating awareness about this region.
•  Helicopter tourism can also be promoted in a big way by introducing small, say 20-seater helicopters. Such trips would encourage people to visit unseen places and enjoy their beauty. The administration can take cues from the success of Himachal Pradesh in development of tourism through the civil aviation where similar terrain conditions as in the north east have worked to the advantage of the aviation industry. There are three airports in the State at Shimla, Kullu and Kangra two of which have been upgraded to handle Boeing 737 and ATR . Tourism in turn has become a major contributor to the revenue of the state. During the year 2004, the tourist arrivals in the state were 6.5 million which is roughly equivalent to the population of the State. Tourism contributes nearly 8% of the State Domestic Product.

Worldwide tourism contributes about 11% of the total workforce and 10.2% of the global gross domestic product. The dynamic growth of this industry is evident from the fact a new job is added to the sector every 2.5 second. The changing geography of tourism since the 9/11 attacks has brought home the importance of regional and domestic tourism. By 2020 the Asia Pacific region is projected to become the second largest tourist generating market in the world. To open up to that market could be very rewarding for Northeast India.
 Higher Education:

 The north east offers a very pristine and appropriate environment for educational activities to thrive. Better connectivity through air travel would facilitate movement of teaching talent to these far flung places leading to the improvement of higher education in the north east. The establishment of an IIT in Guwahati and proposal of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to establish an IIM in Shillong are steps in the right direction. Medical education can also be encouraged by establishing Medical colleges cum hospitals which can considerably decrease the cost of medical expenses and improve the quality of life in this region. Development of higher education in the northeast would have far fetching advantages for the talent starved industries of commerce in India because it would open one more region having ready to use intellectual capital. The best examples of such establishments would be the IT and the ITES Industry which is creating an astonishing number of jobs every year. It would also have a symbiotic effect because where there is availability of intellectual talent commercial and corporate power houses would be encouraged to set up shop leading to overall economic development and generation of meaningful employment to the local population. With the spread of education, the awareness about India will rise and the higher education scenario can only hasten this process.

Trade and Commerce:

Major state capital cities like Aziwal, Imphal and agartala can be promoted as international airports and hubs of commercial activities. Only recently Guwahati has been reopened as an international hub though the number of international flights operating in this region is limited. These activities would increase the volume of passenger traffic coming directly to the north eastern India there by considerably increasing the domestic and international tourist footfalls into the region. It would also reduce the travel time and money spent by any individual who would want to travel out the country from this region.

Wealth generation in a region is boosted to a great extent through the creation, activation and development of the overall infrastructure. The infrastructure includes roads, airports, drinking water facilities, community waste disposal facilities, power stations and other public works services. Business establishments like L & T will get encouraged to go into an MOU with the regional governments to develop the living conditions of the region. Given a period of time and resources it will ensure progress.

As most of the region is situated in harsh geographical regions, the transportation or movement of agricultural products and other goods in and out of the region becomes a very difficult and time taking preposition. The cargo sector of the civil aviation industry should be promoted in a big way so that there is a fast and efficient method of moving goods in the region. Exclusive cargo terminals can be established in the airports and the airports must be appropriately redesigned to handle the cargo aircrafts. The promotion of the cargo sector would also increase the volume of formal trade between the north east and the rest of South East Asia. With better connectivity we can visualize Northeast India supplying hydroelectric power to its cross-border neighbors, pipelines moving gas and petroleum products across the transnational region with lower transportation costs. It will make North east India an attractive investment destination.

The aviation industry has also to play a significant role in two of the glaring problems that have been hounding this region since independence.

• Insurgency and Separatism in the North east
• The China Factor

Insurgency and Separatism

The jungles of South East Asia sweep down from Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh across seven other nations – Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Kampuchea, Malaysia and Vietnam-spanning political boundaries regardless of physical frontiers. Ethnic coalitions, oral traditions and lifestyles based on respect for nature have mattered more in these regions than frontiers. Here men and women, with common origins but different nationalities, share a racial, historic, anthropological and linguistic kinship with each other that is more vital than their links with the mainstream political centers, especially at Delhi, Dhaka and Rangoon, or Yangon, as it is known today.

It is this affinity which has played a role in the unrest and insurgencies that have long troubled the North Eastern region of India. These factors have represented the principal compulsions that triggered the Naga, Mizo, Meitei, Tripuri and Assamese affirmation of separateness from the non-Mongolian communities that dominate the Indian subcontinent. Apart from these, the northeastern states, though they are rich in natural resources, have experienced little industrial or economic growth. Unemployment has caused frustration amongst the youth. Demographic changes have threatened continuation of the special ethnic identity of these people as also their culture and traditions. To crown it all, this jungle covered mountainous terrain having porous borders with many neighbouring countries, provided an ideal setting for the growth of insurgency. Most of the North-East has been facing various degrees of insurgency and violence with the rebel groups receiving overt and covert support from foreign powers-chiefly Pakistan and Bangladesh. Bangladesh is believed to be running as many as 90 camps for Indian insurgents and fundamentalists. Some of the leaders of Indian insurgent groups live in Dhaka and lead a lavish life funded by the host government and its ally, Pakistan's ISI. The influx of Chakma refugees to the region is another destabilizing factor. The violence against ‘outsiders’ or people from other parts of India have also been a cause for concern.

Since the opening up of the economy in the nineties, there is now a perceptible change in attitudes in the people of this region. The development of communication links to the region has served, to bring about awareness about the mainstream India. As the region is present in fairly inaccessible locals, this connectivity has been spearheaded by the civil aviation industry. The civil aviation sector has not only overcome difficult topological barriers, it has also helped to overcome the mental block that exists in the mindset of the people that the north eastern part of India is a very far away from the rest of India. With this the people are slowly coming to terms with the fact that socio economic development by mainstream India through connectivity is being done slowly but surely for the overall growth of the people of the northeast.  The economic development through connectivity acts as a tool for the regional governments to pro actively discourage insurgency and cross border terrorism.

The China Factor:

Arunachal Pradesh is one of two main disputed regions between India and China, the other being Aksai Chin. China does not recognize the state of Arunachal Pradesh, nor the McMahon Line. The People’s Republic of China regards the entire territory that is administered by Arunachal Pradesh as Chinese territory occupied by India. India does not recognize any of these claims, and considers the state to be an integral part of the country. The entire region is administered by Indian authorities, despite the attempts by the Chinese to eject them from the region.

The civil aviation industry can play a role similar to the Qingzang railway in Tibet to turn the popular opinion of the people of Arunachal Pradesh in favour of India. Most of the areas in Arunachal Pradesh being inaccessible by roads or railways, the civil aviation stand as the best solution to improve connectivity between the northeastern states and with rest of India. It can aid in the development of the tourism industry in Arunachal Pradesh. Better connectivity would mean increase in the volume of goods. The increase in passenger traffic will result in greater tourism and economic activity in the state. This would also encourage industrial houses to set up shop in the region. All these developmental activities would be steps in the right direction to help the people of Arunachal Pradesh to integrate locally with the north eastern region and the Indian union as a whole.

Governmental Role:

The central and the state government have a major role to play in the development of the civil aviation sector in the north eastern region and encourage the private airlines to operate in this region. Some of the initiatives taken by the government are as follows:

• The payment of Inland Air Travel Tax (IATT) has been exempted from all of the currently operated routes in the North eastern region.
• The sales tax for the aviation fuel would be capped at 4 per cent.
• Operation of smaller aircrafts and helicopters for passenger and cargo flights is being encouraged through rationalization of airport charges and Avgas prices.
•  Adequate funds as grant-in-aid through North East Council (NEC) is being made available for the infrastructure development work needed to be carried out in the North-East region.
• There are a total of 23 airports in the North Eastern Region out of which 11 have been made operational. These airports are – Agartala, Aizawl, Dibrugarh, Dimapur, Guwahati, Imphal, Jorhat, Lilabari, Shillong, Silchar and Tezpur. The airport at Lengpui, Aizawl is owned by the State Govt.
• Three proposed Greenfield airports are to be developed at Itanagar, Cheithu and Pakyong. Two new Greenfield airports have been proposed at Tawang and Kokrajhar.

Apart from these efforts, the facilities at the existing airports should be modernized to facilitate operation of wide bodied aircrafts for both passenger and cargo operations and ensure that the rest of the airports are operational

Conclusion:

The north eastern region has not always received the attention it deserves. Successive governments have thought of this region as a problem area which should be controlled by flexing its armed might rather than finding a permanent political, social and economic solution. Only recently after the economic boom has the central government turned its attention earnestly towards the north east. Statistics indicate a significant rise in the patronage for the civil aviation industry, there has been a growth of 23.4% in aircraft movement in the North Eastern Region between 2004-05 and 2006-07 and a growth of 40.2% in passenger traffic for the same period.

Problems do remain like lack of specialized medical facilities, drugs and human trafficking. But with increased connectivity through civil aviation and other means, and with the economic prosperity that it brings along, the prospects of finding a permanent solution to the problems of north eastern India are bright. The Look East policy of the Indian government envisages the Northeast region not as the periphery of India, but as the centre of a thriving and integrated economic space. With the opening of the economy the Indian juggernaut is booming at the rate of 9% every year, we can only imagine the rate when the states of the north east join the bandwagon.