Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked the Railways and Road Highways Ministries to expedite the infrastructure development works by using latest technologies. While Modi asked the railways to speed up the redevelopment plan of stations, he asked the Road Ministry to rope in more private investment and adopt best practices in road development. Modi chaired the meeting to assess the performance of both the crucial Ministries.
The PM stressed on the need for decongesting critical stretches of highways and adoption of best technology for toll collection. Modi was informed that over 6,000 km of highways were completed and contract for another 10,098 km were awarded in 2015-16.
Modi urged the railways to substantially raise its ambition in regard to the upgradation of stations. He asked the Ministry to diversify the uses of its infrastructure. “Centre is working on upgrading rail infra. In rural areas, this will boost skill development & increase non-fare revenue for railways,” Modi tweeted later.
The PMO said that 1,780 km of rail lines have been commissioned and 1,730 km electrified during 2015-16, which represent the best performance in railway history. “As far as roads are concerned, completion of highways is going on at remarkable pace. Spoke on need for more private investment in the sector,” the Prime Minister said in a tweet.
“Also emphasised on decongesting critical stretches and invigorating the roads & highways sector with latest technology,” he added.
In the course of the review of the railways sector, it was noted that the capital investment in 2015-16 was over Rs93,000 crore, “which represents a massive increase of 65 per cent over the previous year, and is the highest-ever,” a PMO statement said. “Progress in commissioning of lines & electrification of lines has been commendable. Discussed speeding up process of redeveloping stations,” he said in another tweet.
The PM stressed on the need for studying various models of road development across the country, and adopting the best practices, so that more private investment can be brought into the highway construction sector.