Prime Minister Narendra Modi could inaugurate nearly 42 signature projects, each worth Rs 5,000 crore or more, by January 26 next year and has asked ministers to undertake a ‘9-month Yatra’ to push the projects and ensure “benefits are felt by the people”, top government sources have told News18.
This was discussed during a five-hour-long meeting of the Council of Ministers on Monday where PM Modi commended ministers and secretaries for working hard in the last nine years. Sources say the prime minister said there are many achievements of the government in the last nine years but the focus now was on a ‘9 Mahine Ki Yatra’ and the priority is implementation. Modi said all big projects will be monitored closely. “Policy dikhane se nahi chalta hai, parinaam dikhne chahiyen (showing policy is not enough, the results should show),” the PM is said to have told the ministers.
The Big Projects
Sources say the major focus is on nearly 42 major signature projects, each worth Rs 5000 crore or more, which the prime minister could inaugurate by January 26, 2024. These include the world’s highest elevation bridge — the Chenab Bridge — in J&K, the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramullah rail line project, the Pamban Railway Bridge that links Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu, the Amritsar-Jamnagar Expressway, Dwarka Expressway, Delhi-Meerut Rapid Transit system, metro projects in Pune and Bengaluru, the 1,800-km-long Mehsana-Bathinda gas pipeline and the 4G network saturation project.
AIIMS projects in various cities — including one for central armed police forces — and various railway station development projects are also on the list. The prime minister also asked for speedy completion of PM Awas houses, creation of health and wellness centres and distribution of Ayushman Bharat PVC cards in order to saturate the coverage of these schemes. PM Modi will himself start distribution of the Ayushman Bharat (health insurance) PVC cards to the poor during his visit to Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh.
Capex Targets
At the Council of Ministers meeting, it was pointed out that Rs 10.5 lakh crore Capex budget was announced earlier this year and the expenditure so far in this financial year stood at about 28 per cent at Rs 2.77 lakh crore on this front.
Major expenditure on Capex has been reported by the Roads and Highways Ministry at nearly Rs 1 lakh crore out of its budget of Rs 2.58 lakh crore and Railways at nearly Rs 0.75 lakh crore out of its budget of Rs 2.4 lakh crore. Defence Ministry has spent Rs 0.2 lakh crore out of its budget of Rs 1.62 lakh crore. Telecom ministry has spent about half of its Rs 0.61 lakh crore budget.
These leading infra ministries were asked to accelerate spend of the Capex budget in the next nine months as this financial year’s Capex budget was a record 33 per cent higher than the last financial year.
2020-2030 Could be Turning Point: PM
Sources say the prime minister spoke about how the 1930-1940 decade was a turning point for the country in respect of the Dandi March and Bhagat Singh’s struggle that finally led to the country’s independence in 1947. He said, similarly, 2020-2030 could be an important decade as it would lay the foundation for a developed India as per Vision-2047.
Modi is said to have remarked that he felt himself to be a mismatch in the current political system which speaks of immediate electoral fights while he speaks of the 2047 Vision for the country. “Governments can’t make a nation great, it is the people who make a nation great. Go and sit in villages. Identify 12-15 areas or sectors where nation can become great — identify the low-hanging fruits,” PM Modi said.
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