Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is on a two-day visit to Gujarat, inaugurated and laid the foundation stone for development projects worth around Rs 5,950 crore in the northern region of the state on Monday. A major chunk of these projects, worth around Rs 5,130 crore, were related to the railways.
“Today, many works related to railways have been done. Gujarat has got projects worth more than Rs 5,000 crore today,” PM Modi said in Gujarati, addressing a public gathering at Dabhoda village in Mehsana district. The railways, he added, would play an important role in the development of industries and tourism in the region. Dabhoda village is near Vadnagar, PM Modi’s hometown.
The railway projects include a section of the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor between New Sanand and New Bhandu and the expansion of the railway line between Viramgam and Samakhiyali into two tracks. This will include Ahmedabad, Surendranagar, Morbi, and Rajkot districts. Another venture was the Gujarat Railway Infrastructure Development Corporation project involving a 29.65 km railway line between Katosan and Bechraji in Mehsana.
“Dedicated freight corridor between Ahmedabad and Mehsana is going to be a very revolutionary step…because of that the connectivity with ports of Pipavav, Porbandar, Jamnagar will increase… Its benefit will come to the farmers, industrialists and cattle-rearers. And because of that, there is great possibility of industry expansion in the region. It will boost the prospect of north Gujarat becoming a logistic hub and storage centre,” PM Modi said. In this context, he also said that the work on 2,500 km of dedicated freight corridors has been completed.
PM Modi also said that north Gujarat has a lot of tourism possibilities. He cited Vadnagar as a place that is going to be a major tourism hub of north Gujarat, saying that after Kashi, Vadnagar is the second “avinashi nagar” (a town which has never been destroyed) of India.
The PM added, “The Taranga Hill-Ambaji-Abu rail line is going to change the fortune (of the region). It is going to pass through our region and the broad gauge line means you are going to be connected directly with Delhi. And because of that, tourism will be developed in Taranga, Ambaji and Dharoi.”
He further added, “Railway is going to play a big role in the development of industry and tourism in this region…Ambaji is going to have the best railway connectivity and the arrival of devotees from Delhi and Mumbai is going to be convenient.”
PM Modi also cited the recent recognition of Dhordo village of Kutch as among the best tourist villages in the world. He added that similarly Nada Bet in Banaskantha district of north Gujarat will also be developed.
Most Read
During his speech, PM Modi cited several initiatives by the government in Gujarat and in the Centre. He said that the development of Gujarat and India could only become possible because of political stability and expressed the resolve to work harder for the development of the country and the state. “With the blessings of the land where I have grown up, I will do much more hard work than before,” PM Modi said.
He sought the blessings of the people to work more to make India developed by 2047, the year India will complete 100 years of independence.
On Tuesday, PM Modi will visit the Statue of Unity to participate in Rashtriya Ekta Diwas on the occasion of the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
