Speaking at a ground breaking ceremony of Gandhinagar Railway Station redevelopment project on the eve of grand inauguration of Vibrant Gujarat Summit 2017, Prime Minister Narendra Modi blamed coalition Governments in the past three decades that ruled the nation for leaving Railway Ministry on its fate despite being the most important transportation system of India.
“Political parties used to join or support Governments if they would get Railway Ministry. The Ministry was a major tool to form Government. It is bitter truth. Outcome of the situation was that whichever party used to get Railway Ministry, it would worry about the matters of Railways. Rest you understand better, said the Prime Minister.
Modi who is on two-day visit to his home-State to attend eighth edition of Vibrant Gujarat Summit commencing from Tuesday struck a chord with audience by greeting them in Gujarati – ‘Kem Chho’ (How are you). In response of cheers and clapping from crowd, he continued in his mother tongue ‘Hu Maja Ma Chhu ane Aakho Desh Pan Maja ma Chhe’ (I am fine and entire nation too is fine).
Expansion, development and modernisation of Railway to bring qualitative change in the life of people was the priority of his Government, he said, adding that in the past two and half years, railway budget has been doubled and as result of it work on gauge conversion of tracks, electrification of rail lines, cleanliness initiatives including installation of bio toilets, safety measures, technological changes among others to make Indian Railways better and efficient.
Talking about freight corridor, he said that globally 70 per cent cargo handled by rail and 30 per cent by roads. However in the case of India hardly 15 to 20 per cent cargos are being handled by rail and around 80 per cent by roads,” said PM, adding that “we need to change this scenario to reduce transportation cost. Citing example of reducing the weight of containers used to transport salt.” He said that generally weight of the container is around 16 tonnes and it can transport hardly two tonnes of salt. Work was going on to design special container to transport salt to far flung places which would benefit common people as they would get salt at cheaper rates, he added.
On Mahatma Mandir Convention cum Exhibition centre, the permanent venue of biennial Vibrant Gujarat Summits, the Prime Minister said that one day world prominent global leaders would discuss here about world peace.
“As part of the Gandhinagar Railway Station redevelopment project a 300-room five-star hotel is coming up in the proximity of Mahatma Mandir. A venue for global trade shows is just few meters from here. These facilities would make Gandhinagar corridor for business activities,” he added.
On the occasion Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu announced redevelopment of 23 more railway stations across the country including Habibganj in Bhopal, Ambala, ludhiana and Bhubaneswar. Before the formation of NDA Government at centre, Gujarat used to get hardly `580 crore worth railway projects annually, but the Modi Government increased allocation by more than four times by increase it to `2,400 crore.
He ensured people that in the next Vibrant Gujarat Summit in 2019, PM Modi would inaugurate the new Gandhinagar Railway station. Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani thanked the Centre for allotting bullet train, Railway University and 26 new trains to the State. He also inaugurated Nobel Prize Exhibition in late evening at Science City Ahmedabad.