Blaming previous governments for not pushing infrastructure projects, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday that projects worth ₹10 lakh crore were in a state of limbo when he took office in May 2014 and his government had broken the impasse on such investments during its tenure so far.
On a day-long tour to Mumbai, Mr. Modi on Sunday afternoon unveiled the foundation plaque at the ground breaking ceremony for the Navi Mumbai International Airport, dedicated the fourth container terminal at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) to the nation and inaugurated the Magnetic Maharashtra investment summit. Late in the evening, he also launched a new centre for artificial intelligence.
“The previous governments had only one policy, which was latkana (to stall), atkana (to keep it pending) and patkana (to ground well-laid plans). Projects worth ₹10 lakh crore which were pending when I took over are now progressing,” Mr. Modi said, in his address at the ground breaking ceremony of the Navi Mumbai International airport project.
“The first promise of this airport was made in 1997, during the government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and since then there were only promises which remained on paper. When I took over, I went over the papers. I took a detailed report of it and the work started. Now people will come to claim credit saying it was our project, but you now know what has happened,” said Mr. Modi.
The airport is likely to cost ₹16,704 crore and is estimated to attract at least 10 million passengers per annum, once its first phase is operational.
Fresh orders
Since independence, only 450 airplanes were in the sky including both from government and private sectors, and now companies have ordered 900 planes in just one year, Mr. Modi said, highlighting the growth that has taken place under his government’s watch.
Earlier governments only talked about the 21st century, but never visualised it and “the project only used to remain on paper,” he said.
