Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 15 dedicated to the nation the 13-km Kollam bypass of National Highway 66, a project that took more than four decades to complete.
“I am happy that with the cooperation and contribution from the State government we could complete the project in an effective manner. When my government took over we had given priority to developing infrastructure and many such projects are in various stages of progress at different States,” he said, inaugurating the bypass. Mr. Modi said through Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation (PRAGATI), a multi-modal interactive platform, the government could effectively expedite the projects by overcoming the hurdles.
“In our country, we often see many infrastructure projects getting stalled after announcements for various reasons. A lot of public money gets wasted due to cost and time overruns and we decided this culture of wasting public money cannot continue,” he said.
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Mr. Modi said till now he had reviewed more than 250 projects worth around ₹12 lakh crore under PRAGATI.
Governor P. Sathasivam, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Union Minister K.J. Alphons, Ministers G. Sudhakaran, J. Mercykutty Amma, and K. Raju attended the function.