Government is giving boost to walk on the path of making Bharat, a developed India....by MP Satnam Singh Sandhu

Chandigarh: The recent opening of the 22-kilometer Atal Setu in Mumbai signifies more than the mere conclusion of an infrastructure project. Conceived in the 1960s, this project faced various obstacles over the years, experiencing little to no advancement, a pattern observed in several significant projects from the past.

But after Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the 12th longest sea bridge in the world in December 2016, Atal Setu swiftly transformed from a concept into reality, achieving completion on 13 January, well ahead of the June 2024 deadline.

More recently, the rapid transformation of Ayodhya, exemplified by the inauguration of Maharshi Valmiki International Airport and the renovated railway station, three weeks prior to the Ram Mandir consecration ceremony, underscores the remarkable pace of 'overall infrastructure development in India' under Modi government when it comes to roads, railways, airports, ports, mass transport, waterways, and logistics infrastructure.

In fact, infrastructure development has been the Narendra Modi government’s preferred route to boost economic growth. And the just announced Interim Budget for 2024-25 has added new momentum to this by setting a capital expenditure target of Rs 11.11 lakh crore, around 11 % higher than the capex outlay of Rs 10 lakh crore for the current fiscal year.

The announcement of three new economic railway corridors along with expansion of air connectivity and metro rail services in the Interim Budget shows the record investment the Modi government is making in creation of world class infrastructure which every Indian used to dream about.

Revolution in Road Connectivity

The sheer scale and speed of development witnessed in road connectivity since 2014 is astonishing. The total length of national highways (NHs) in India increased 60 per cent to 1,46,145 kilometers (km) till December 2023, from 91,287 km in 2014.The length of four-lanes and above NHs increased by 2.5 times to 46,179 km in December 2023 from 18,387 km in 2014.

The length of high-speed corridors, 353 km in 2014, increased to 3,913 km in 2023. The total length of less than 2-lane NHs decreased from 30% in 2014 to 10 % of NH network in 2023. The per day highway construction has grown to 37 km from just 12 km per day before 2014.

The rural road connectivity has also reached 99% with over 3.50 lakh kms of rural roads made since 2014. Due to a 500% increase in the budget allocated for road transport and highways since 2014, India has surpassed China and ranks second only to the United States in terms of road network length.

Modernization of Indian Railways

Indian Railways has witnessed an era of modernization since 2014 with advancements in freight loading, introduction of new trains such as Vande Bharat, Amrit Bharat, and Namo Bharat, modern stations with airport like amenities, track laying, and electrification.

Putting Indian Railways at par with any rail network in the world, the electrification of railway tracks is almost complete with expenditure of Rs 46,425 crore rupees on electrification of 38,650 km railway lines since 2014 as compared to 21,801 km electrified before this period.

The make“waitlists” for passengers history, a mega expansion plan is in place for rolling out 3,000 more trains in the next 3-4 years and increasing the number of trains that run daily to 13,000.

With 3 times increase in pace of railway track construction, Indian Railways has accomplished significant track laying work, with completion of 25,871 route kilometers between 2014 and 2023.

Metro Rail expansion

Under Modi government, the number of Indian cities with metro rail has gone up from 5 in 2014 to 27 at present. The length of metro networks is now 870 kilometre as compared to 248-kilometre in 2014.

Even more, about 462 kilometre of metro rail is currently under construction, 372-kilometre routes have been approved, while another 1,056 kilometers have been proposed which will take the cumulative metro rail network to about 2,750 kilometers. With this, India would surpass the US in the next couple of years to become the second largest metro rail network in the world.

Strides in Maritime Arena

India’s ports have witnessed double-digit annual growth in past 10 years with the Sagarmala programme, launched in 2015, bringing port infrastructure revolution in India. Out of 802 projects (worth Rs 5.53 lakh crore) under it, 172 projects worth of Rs 88,235 crore have been completed and 235 projects worth Rs 2.17 lakh crore are under implementation.

While the total volume of traffic handled by Indian ports in 2014–15 was 1,052.1 Million Tonnes Per Year (MMTPA), the current cargo handling capacity is 1,500 MMTPA which would go up to over 3,300 MMTPA by 2025. India has already surpassed many developed nations when it comes to ship-turnaround time.

The Modi government's focus on inland water transport has led to the declaration of 111 National Waterways. The cargo movement on these waterways reached a record high of 108.8 million tons in 2022, reflecting a growth of 30.1% compared to the previous year.

As per World Bank Logistics Performance Index report 2022, India ranking jumped from 54th position in 2014 to 38th position in 139 countries index, showcasing enhanced efficiency and competitiveness.

UDAN in Civil Aviation

The number of airports has more than doubled from 74 in 2014 to 149 now. But the Modi government aims to take this number up to 220 by 2025 with a Rs 98,000 crore investment.

Under PMs Flagship scheme RCS-UDAN, 76 airports in Tier-3 and Tier-4 and other remote corner of the country have been made operational. 

Over 1.32 Crore people have benefited from UDAN in more than 2.5 Lakh flights for which the government has provided Viability Gap Funding (VGF) of Rs 3,100 crore under the scheme.

Powering a Developed India 

Ensuring universal electricity access, Modi government has made an investment of about Rs 17 lakh crore in 9 years in power sector and the capacity under construction is worth Rs 17.5 lakh crore.

Transforming the power sector and making it viable, the government has brought down Aggregate Technical & Commercial (AT&C) losses from 27% in 2014-15 to 15.41%. The power shortage has now come down from around 4.5% in 2014 to less than 1%.The Modi government has added 194 gigawatts (GW) of power capacity. Since 2014, the power transfer capacity has also increased from 36 GW to 117 GW today.

To connect the whole country into one grid (largest in the world) on one frequency, the Modi government has constructed 193,0000 circuit km of transmission lines.The Modi government has brought rural power availability from 12.5 hours in 2015 to around 21 hours today and in urban areas to 23.8 hours.

Transformation of Education Infrastructure

With a 64% budget increase for the education, the Modi government has transformed this sector in the past decade with focus on primary, higher and medical education.With vast improvement in the infrastructure of schools, amenities like electricity, libraries and girls’ toilet have witnessed significant jump in the past 10 years.

Since 2014, the Modi Government has announced the setting up of new IITs, IIMs, IIITs, NIT and NIDs. As of now, there are 23 IITs and 20 IIMs across the country. A new university has been set up every week and two new colleges have been set up every day since 2014.

Medical education is witnessing rapid improvement with 53% increase in MBBS seats and 80 % increase in post-graduate seats. Six new AIIMS have been operationalized and 16 more are in the pipeline.

Digital Connectivity

India has achieved never before connectivity in past 9 years with over six times Increase in expenditure on IT and Telecom. Be it internet connections (growth of 238%) or broadband connections (growth of 1238 %), the seamless cycle of infrastructural connectivity, from physical to digital, has been phenomenal under Modi government.

As compared to only 5 dozen panchayats before 2014, Modi government has taken optical fibre to over 1.9 lakh gram panchayats as part of its digitization efforts to transform education, health care, and agriculture.

Advancements in infrastructure in past 10 years have already reduced logistics costs and positioned India as a global economic powerhouse aiming to turn into a $5 trillion economy sooner than later.

From the increased capital outlay on infrastructure in Interim Budget 2024, it’s more than clear that Modi government is laying a strong foundation for the realization of vision of ‘Viksit Bharat’ by 2047.

February 20, 2024