Even as posters against Narendra Modi came up outside Bharatiya Janata Party's Gujarat unit headquarters in Gandhinagar, the prime minister appeared to be on a pre-election mode during his two-day visit to his home state that began on Tuesday.
The posters, which caused embarrassment to the BJP on Modi's 10th visit to the state after becoming the prime minister, were later removed.
The highlight of the day was Modi dedicating to the nation a 1344 meter long bridge over the river Narmada in Bharuch. Built at a cost of Rs 400 crore, the bridge is expected to ease the flow of traffic between Mumbai and Ahmedabad.
Considered to be the first of its kind, the cable bridge has come up in a stipulated time frame. The PM took a dig at the previous governments at the Centre, saying that earlier it was common for the projects to go on for 10 to 12 years.
Modi also announced that eight highways of Gujarat would be converted into national highways at a cost of Rs 12,000 crore.
He sought to assert that the NDA government was far superior as compared to the previous regimes when it comes to developing road and rail network. Modi mentioned about “Bharat Mala” and “Sagar Mala” projects that would connect entire road and waterways of the country and said that it would give a boost to port-led development.
He also said that during the previous government's rule, optical fibers were laid in only 59 villages as against the plan of laying the network in 1.25 lakh villages. “Now, optical fiber has been laid in 68,000 villages,” Modi remarked.
Earlier, speaking at a function to dedicate a plant of ONGC in Bharuch, Modi said that when demonetisation took place, some feared that it would create problem and everything would be over. But, in fact, it helped India move forward, he said.
He even said that his government had succeeded in controlling the price rise and claimed that none of the parties could target the BJP for not curbing price rise.
On Wednesday, Modi will felicitate women sarpanchs on the occasion of Women's Day. He will also visit Somnath Temple to have “darshan” and then take part in a meeting of the Somnath Trust.
BJP national president Amit Shah and former chief minister Keshubhai Patel are already in Somnath for the meeting. On Monday night, youth allegedly belonging to Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti, pelted eggs on Shah's cavalcade when he was on his way to the temple.
