Pm Modi addressed a post-budget webinar on developing the infrastructure of the country and the state of the country’s infrastructure.
PM Modi’s govt targets
PM Modi said this year’s budget will give new energy to infrastructure growth and that capital expenditure has increased 5 times compared to pre-2014 pointing to the infrastructure under the Congress govt.
He added that infrastructure has been important from the very beginning and gave the example of a highway called UTRAPATH built by Chandragupta Maurya 2500 years ago and helped in connecting India with central Asia to expand trade. This positively affected economy of both regions. The same highway was renovated by Samarth Ashok and by Sher shah suri in the 16th century. In the Modern Period, the British renovated it well and called it GT Road.
He agreed with the fact that highways have become important in today’s economic era. He gave the example of Banaras which had served as a riverfront that connected it with the other areas of the county to do trade with the rest of the country.
He asserted that after independence, not much focus was given to infrastructure because the govt was taking poverty as a virtue and poverty was the thing on which the parties gained the vote bank of the people.
He added that the govt has helped the country to come out of it and is heavily investing in the development of the infrastructure.
He informed the stakeholders that the average annual construction of national highways has surged by 2 times compared to 2014. Every year 600 km of the railroad was electrified by the Congress-run govt, but now it is 4000 km every year. The number of airports has increased from 74 to 150.
He said today’s age is the age of globalisation and sea ports have become important, the capacity of the seaports has increased by 2 times compared to 2014. He said the govt has made infrastructure the driver of economic growth and by 2047, it would make the country develop.
He agreed that now is the time to fasten the process and Pm Gati Shakti National master plan is important which focuses on multi-model logistics and infrastructure. He added it has an integrated economy and infrastructure. He informed the stakeholders that the govt is finding gaps and improving logistic efficiency.
The PM added that 100 critical projects have been initiated by Budget 2024 on an outlay of 75 thousand crores which would ensure quality infrastructure and multi-model infrastructure and reduce the cost of logistics construction.
The Pm stated the benefits of such a programme which is a positive impact on trade, ease of doing business and ease of living.
The private sector has been given a fair chance to contribute to the development of the country.
He discussed that states are important in this and to ensure that states do not run out of funds, the central government has expanded the 50-year interest-free loan by 1 year to the states. He directed the states to promote quality infrastructure.
He gave his example while he was serving as the CM of Gujarat, run of Kutch had been hit by an earthquake, he said there were two approaches before him, the ist one to rehabilitate the affected people and look after the damage caused, and the 2nd approach was to develop the area affected, he chose the 2nd approach and he added the benefits of the infrastructure are evident today.
He added that along with physical infrastructure, social infrastructure is also needed which includes people trained in project management, finance skills and entrepreneurship etc.
