Projecting the North-east as an ideal destination was a priority with the Union Tourism Ministry, and the region has of late been receiving enhanced Central assistance for tourism development. Revealing this, S Banerjee, Secretary, Union Ministry of Tourism, today told the media that while the north-eastern States received an amount of Rs 319 crore for tourism infrastructure development during the Tenth Plan, an amount of Rs 169 crore was released in the year 2007-08 alone. The Union Secretary, who earlier had a review meeting with the tourism secretaries of the north-eastern States, however, evaded a direct reply when it was pointed out by the media that there had been little visible impact on the ground about the utilization of such huge amounts of funds meant for development of tourism infrastructure. "Some of the schemes take time for implementation due to various difficulties including problems relating to land acquisition etc