Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said that Rs 100 lakh crore will be spent on infrastructure development across the country in the next five years as the government is working tirelessly to develop a holistic infrastructure network across India.
The Prime Minister is in Maharashtra today to launch several infra projects in Mumbai and Aurangabad. Earlier in the day, in Mumbai, he commissioned the work of three new Metro lines for Mumbai, a state of the art Metro headquarters named Metro Bhavan and also inaugurated the Ban Dongri Metro station where the work has been completed recently.
He said that the country was moving towards a five trillion economy and accordingly our cities have to be transformed into better places where mobility, productivity, connectivity etc are state of the art as per the norms of 21st century. “At present, 850 km of Metro related work is going on across India. In the last five years, our government completed close to 400 km of Metro. We will spend Rs 100 lakh crores on infrastructure development across the country in the next five years and Mumbai and Maharashtra will benefit immensely from this. Today the Metro service in Mumbai is limited to just 12 km, by 2023-24 it will be spread over 325 km,” said the Prime Minister.
He said that the Fadnavis government was working tirelessly and honestly for the development of the metropolis and the state. “Mumbai’s pace is crucial to the development of the nation. Mumbai has slowly started changing in the last five years. ‘Mumbai In Minutes’ is the aim of all the infrastructure schemes where the work is ongoing. These project will make life much easier in Mumbai. The 325 km of Metro network will have the same passenger capacity as that of the suburban train network,” stated Modi.
The prime minister pointed out that the infrastructure-related works will create huge job opportunities in Mumbai and Maharashtra. “ Mumbai Metro will require 10,000 engineers and 40,000 skilled and unskilled workers.”
In his speech, the prime minister also praised the team of scientists at ISRO for work they had done during Mission Chandrayaan. “ I am hugely impressed by the commitment and dedication shown by ISRO scientists who have achieved a milestone. The Mission Chandrayaan may have faced a hurdle but they will not stop. We must also not forget that our Orbiter is still orbiting the moon. We can learn from our ISRO scientists as to how to achieve the impossible,” said Modi who arrived in Mumbai from Bangalore.
The event was attended by Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, Union ministers Ramdas Athavale, Arvind Sawant and Piyush Goyal and Maharashtra Governor Bhagansingh Koshiyari.
Speaking on the occasion Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray praised Modi and his government for the abrogation of article 370 and Mission Chandrayaan.
“When I met Modiji, I told him he deserved congratulations on many things. Only our government could have decided abrogation of article 370. Now we want the government to give us Saman Nagari Kaayda (Common Civil Code) and Lord Ram Temple at Ayodhya,” said Thackeray who expressed confidence that BJP-Sena government will return to power in Maharashtra. “We are not power-hungry but we want the power to transform the lives of people.”
The presence of Uddhav Thackeray at the function, Prime Minister Modi addressing him as ‘my younger brother’ are being seen as a clear indicator that BJP and Sena will fight the upcoming assembly elections together as an alliance with seat-sharing remaining just a formality.
