NEW DELHI: Union minister Suresh Angadi on Friday dismissed the opposition's criticism over the state of economy, asserting that "airports and trains are full and people are getting married" and this indicates that the country's economy is "doing fine".
Noting that the economy slows down every three years but it will pick up soon, the minister of state for railways said "some people" are trying to malign the image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"Airports are full, trains are full, people are getting married. Some people are doing this for nothing else but to malign the image of Narendra Modi," Angadi told reporters during an inspection of the soon-to-be-commissioned Tunda-Khurja section of the eastern dedicated freight corridor, which will stretch from Punjab's Ludhiana to Howrah in Bengal and be completed by December 2021.
"Every three years there is a fall in demand in economy. It is a cycle. Then the economy picks up also," he added.
Opposition parties, including the Congress, have been criticising the government over the state of the economy and plans to raise the issue in the Winter Session of Parliament starting on Monday.
The junior minister for railways also said that in the coming days, India will become the "manufacturing hub of the world".
The 194-km-long fully electrified rail route between New Bhadan and Khurja in Uttar Pradesh, part of the Eastern DFC, will carry mostly iron and coal to Mughal Sarai, Tatanagar and Chakradharpur among other destinations.
With the dedicated freight corridor (DFC), the logistical cost on this route will decrease from 14 per cent to 7 per cent, Angadi said.
The commissioning of the corridor would enable the decongestion of existing over-saturated paths which, in turn, would result in improving punctuality of passenger trains.