Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday revealed that more than 1,500 railway projects approved in Parliament by the earlier governments at the Centre have remained on paper.
Addressing a BJP rally in Mysuru on Monday, Mr. Modi said the previous governments at the Centre had been fooling the people of the country by merely announcing Railway projects in the Parliament, but not implementing them.
“I am now trying to revive such projects”, Mr. Modi claimed adding that the total cost of the more than 1500 projects, which are pending since 1960s, was estimated to around ₹9 lakh crore. But, the cost of the projects had now gone up.
He said the projects that were announced in the Railway budgets earlier included several new trains. “The projects were announced only to make the MPs happy”, he said adding that the people in the Government managed to get away with it due to lax vigilance by the media and NGOs.
He said the BJP Government at the Centre was concentrating on railway modernization including upgrading of technology.
Referring to the Humsafar train between Mysuru and Udaipur that he flagged off earlier in the day, Mr Modi said the train will give a boost to tourism in Mysuru.
Describing the train as “live platform” of tourism, Mr Modi said the train connecting Rajasthan with Karnataka will also help bring a lot tourists visiting Udaipur to Mysuru.
The growth of tourism brings all-round development of the city by creating a source of livelihood to autorickshaw and taxi drivers, lodges, and other businesses.
