Need to build infrastructure: Modi.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, recently, stressed on the need to strengthen infrastructure such as power, roads and electricity to ensure all-round development of the nation and make the people self-reliant..

Mr. Modi was speaking at the foundation stone laying ceremony of three mega projects, which includes eight-laning of the Delhi (Mukarba Chowk)-Panipat section of National Highway-1 (70 km), the Eastern Peripheral Expressway (135 km) and the Western Peripheral Expressway (136 km).

The projects, which shall pass through Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, are coming up at a cost of Rs.13,802 crore and shall cover a length of 341 km. The proposed expressways will have transport, entertainment and educations hubs along the road to provide impetus to economic activities.

The Prime Minister said the projects worth Rs.4 lakh crore were hanging fire for the past several years and had been resumed with his intervention.

Addressing the gathering, Mr. Modi said governments in India had always been in a dilemma over strengthening infrastructure thinking it might not fetch them enough votes in the elections. This, he said, had proved to be a stumbling block in the development of the country.

The Prime Minister said that ensuring the participation of the oppressed in the development of the country must be priority, but the governments should also stress on strengthening infrastructure for all-round development.

Mr. Modi said that 123 districts in the country were not linked to national highways, a cause for which his government had launched a campaign. He added that his government also had plans to provide round-the-clock power supply to every village in the country by the year 2022.

Referring to his Digital India project, the Prime Minister said the need of the hour was to make villages hi-tech and provide them internet access. Lakhs of villages today are not digitally connected and we have taken it up on ourselves to get this done, said Mr. Modi.

Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said the proposed 135-km Eastern Expressway Highway would be the first Access-Controlled Highway to be built by the present Union government.

The two expressways are expected to reduce the volume of commercial traffic entering Delhi by more than half and also bring down pollution levels and number of accidents. The Minister said that with these projects, the total length of highways across the country would increase from 96,000 km to 1,50,000 km by the end of the year.

Mr. Gadkari added that road projects worth Rs.32,000 crore were granted to Haryana in less than an year, with more projects to be cleared soon.

He also said that his ministry had planned a Delhi-Meerut Expressway to increase connectivity between the two cities.

THE HINDU