NEW DELHI: Lambasting people criticising Centre’s plan to develop modern infrastructure, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said due to lack of initiative and politics, projects such as Pragati Maidan which was created to showcase India got lagged behind.
“Unfortunately, there was not much ‘Pragati’ (progress) of the Pragati Maidan. Despite a lot of fanfare and publicity earlier, work was not done,” said Modi while inaugurating the main tunnel and five underpasses of Pragati Maidan Integrated Transit Corridor Project built at a cost of `920 crore, entirely funded by the Central Government on Sunday.
“The Centre is working continuously for state-of-the-art facilities, exhibition halls for holding world-class events in the capital of the country,” he added and mentioned some of the establishments such as the International Convention and Expo Centre in Dwarka and the redevelopment project in Pragati Maidan.
“Modern infrastructure developed by the Centre is making Delhi modern,” he said.
Citing the example of the New Defence Office Complex at Africa Avenue and Kasturba Gandhi Road, he said that the Centre deals as proactively with long-pending problems, ensures environment-friendly construction and looks after those who provide service to the country. The Prime Minister also said that the Central Vista project is moving rapidly and in the coming days, Delhi will be a topic of discussion globally.
He further talked about the benefits that come along the integrated corridor in terms of saving time and fuel and decongestion of traffic leading to an environmental dividend, equivalent to planting 5 lakh trees.
He said “In the last eight years, we have taken unprecedented steps to solve the problems of Delhi-NCR. The metro service has expanded from 193 km to 400 km.”
Similarly, the Eastern and Western Peripheral Expressway and Delhi-Meerut expressway played a key role in the development. He also said that there has been a change in the mindset of the common man and the government is making all the effort to keep working according to that change. He pointed out that Delhi-Mumbai Expressway, Delhi-Dehradun Expressway, Delhi-Amritsar Expressway, Delhi-Chandigarh Expressway and Delhi-Jaipur Expressway have made Delhi one of the best connected capitals of the world.
He also mentioned the role of the Delhi Meerut Rapid rail system made by indigenous technology in cementing Delhi’s identity as capital of India. The platform benefits a wide group of people such as students, workers, taxi- auto drivers, among others.