These long-pending government projects are back on track because of PM Modi’s efforts

India had once thought of two projects that could have changed the face of economy, if implemented. However, both the projects, one of which was to be done on water and the other one under the ground, lost track of development, and it’s only because of the efforts of PM Modi that they have been again brought on track.

The two projects are Sagarmala, which was the plan to upgrade the waterways and was aimed at making water transport a major option for businesses, and the national fibre optic network project, which aimed to bring Internet to every Indian village via underground fibre.

Talking of Sagarmala, it was held up mainly because of the unsolved differences between shipping and rail ministries, but transport Minister Nitin Gadkari has held several meetings and his interventions could lead to things gaining pace.

The projetc is moving upwards fast, with all its core details being finalised and RITES, the government consultancy firm, being asked to work out final logistics. Not only this, the project of this cost is also brought down from Rs 6000 crore to Rs 4000 crore.

The project includes 150 smaller projects under various categories like port modernisation, connectivity, port-led industrialisation and coastal community development.

On the fibre optics project, a senior official familiar with the PM's views told ET that "problems have been existing since Sam Pitroda's time (Pitroda was appointed by various Congress governments earlier)...but the PM wants the targets to be reached soon."

As of now, over 1,30,000 km of cable had been laid while the situation stood petty, at only 500 km of cable laid out, when Modi became the PM in May 2014. Even now, only 7,000 gram panchayats have received the final connectivity out of 1,00,000 gram panchayats targeted in the first phase, says a source from the telecom ministry, and the deadline is March 2017.

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