Ministry of DoNER Urges Manipur Govt. to Consider Proposal for Dedicated Road Corridor Connecting Hill Areas of the State

The Ministry for Development of the North Eastern Region (DoNER) has urged the Manipur government to consider a proposal for a dedicated road corridor connecting the hill areas of the state.

In a letter to the Chief Secretary of Manipur dated August 6, the ministry stated: “I am directed to forward herewith a copy of the memorandum dated 1st August 2025, received from Kuki Inpi Manipur on the above-mentioned subject, and to request that the proposal for the development of a dedicated road corridor to the hill areas of Manipur may be considered as per the policy, need, and priority of the State Government.”

The letter also enclosed a copy of the memorandum submitted by Kuki Inpi Manipur (KIM) to the President of India on August 1.

In the memorandum, KIM urged the Centre to sanction and construct a new all-weather road corridor that provides exclusive, safe, and unhindered access to the hill districts.

KIM stated that the arterial routes connecting the tribal Kuki-dominated hill regions to the rest of the country have been blockaded, vandalized, or rendered unsafe due to continuous threats and targeted aggression.

“Such a situation has resulted in obstruction of emergency medical services and acute shortages of life-saving drugs, disruption of essential commodity supply chains—including food, fuel, and infant nutrition—and denial of safe passage to tribal populations, leading to large-scale suffering and humanitarian crises,” KIM stated.

The Kuki body further stated that the existing roadways are no longer reliable or secure for the Adivasi Kuki population, and that such disruptions have created systematic economic strangulation, curtailed mobility, and isolated the hill areas from governance, relief, and rehabilitation mechanisms.

KIM urged the President of India to declare the proposed route as a strategic and humanitarian corridor under central security control and to allocate special infrastructure funding for hill connectivity under the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD), the Ministry of DoNER, and the Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA).

KIM also requested the President to ensure tribal consultation and oversight in the road’s planning and implementation.

“Such a corridor is inherent, inevitable, and indispensable for the survival, security, and long-term development of the tribal Kuki people,” KIM emphasized.