PM Modi reviews infra projects
Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a high-level meeting to review the status of various infrastructure projects in the country.
In addition to the infra projects, the meeting focused on rural infrastructure, power, coal, renewable energy and petroleum and natural gas sectors.
The meeting was attended by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Road, Transport, Highways & Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari, Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajpathi Raju, as well as senior officials from NITI Aayog, various infrastructure Ministries and PMO officials.
Modi was given a detailed overview of plans of various Ministries for the completion of pending projects within the current financial year. He asked for specific data to be collected and presented on priority areas such as toilets, affordable housing and smart cities, it added.
The Prime Minister also reiterated his emphasis on electrification of the unconnected villages at the earliest. A road map on this was presented to him.
Modi enquired about the progress on renewable energy goals and directed maximum focus on this area. He said public spaces such as railway stations should be priority areas for adopting energy-efficient technologies and renewable energy.
Modi stressed on the need for government departments to work towards initializing spending of the Budget in a focused manner right from the start of the financial year.
He said that in urban areas, one of the priorities should be creation of waste-to-wealth and efficient systems for wastewater disposal and solid waste management in 500 cities.
Reviewing rural infrastructure, the Prime Minister directed that highest priority be accorded to the work envisaged under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana. He said irrigation potential of all reservoir projects should be realized to the extent possible.
