Achievements to be unveiled for PM’s maiden speech from Red Fort ramparts
The Government has got into full swing to unveil the achievements of the Narendra Modi Government when the Prime Minister delivers his maiden Independence Day speech from the Red Fort.
On Saturday, Planning Secretary Sindhushree Khullar met with secretaries from infrastructure and social Ministries to speed up project implementations and approvals.
Earlier this month, in a note to the Ministries, including roads and highways, aviation, coal, power, industry and railways, Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth instructed them to draw up a list of all the commissioned infra projects to enlist the achievement of the Modi’s regime so that they could be included in the PM’s address on August 15.
“At his inaugural speech on his first Independence Day, the PM wants to send across the message that rapid infrastructure development is high on the priority list of his Government. Though work on these projects started during the UPA regime which were stuck for long, havenow cleared hurdles and ready to move,” said a senior Government official.
Sources say the PMO has started the process of short-listing projects Modi can talk about in his August 15 speech, which is also about 20 days short of his 100 day term in office.
The highways ministry has sent a list of 14 highway projects, majority of which will be inaugurated by last week of this month. The roads Ministry has also prepared a list of 12 more highway projects which will be ready for foundation laying ceremony by early August.
The infrastructure sector is a focus area for the Modi regime, and projects worth over Rs 50,000 crore have already been cleared in the two months the Government has been in power.
Construction of roads remains a top priority with the Centre. The Roads Ministry has set itself a target of awarding 8,500 km of highway projects this fiscal, against 9,638 km in 2013-14. However, the UPA Government had managed to award 3,169 km of road projects last year.
Of the 8,500 km of highways projects, 3,500 km would be given out on PPP mode and the remaining would be completed using 100 per cent government funds.
For the railways, a target of laying 300 km of new tracks has been set. The Indian Railways had laid 450 km of new track in 2013-14, which was 50 km short of the target.
For the aviation sector, the plan panel proposed consists of lowering the investment target from Rs 1,008 crore in the previous fiscal to Rs 934 crore this year, since investment realisation was just about 55 per cent of the target in 2013-14. A plan to develop airports in non-metro cities is also in the pipeline.