Infrastructure in northeast India is produced in conditions unlike those in “mainland” India. In much of the region, though unevenly and often opaquely, authority is fragmented into microsites of contention where state, quasi-state and non-state actors vie to control space and what is built upon, within and under it. This is true for private housing, commercial developments and other kinds of public places and services. Demands for infrastructure are integral to local politics and patronage. This article looks at these conditions in two dramatically different sites—Namchi Plaza in Sikkim and Kakching Gardens in Manipur. In the former, the partly defunct and rapidly dilapidating plaza is a testament to corruption and limited revenue generation within the town. In the case of the latter, the gardens are a source of local pride and normalcy, and offer a small gesture in filling the void ofcivilian infrastructural absences in the region.