PM Narendra Modi was in Surat today for laying the foundation stone for several developmental projects under the Smart-City initiative. He also laid the foundation stone for the extension of the terminal building at the Surat Airport. Hailing Surat, Modi said it was the first centre in the country from where Satyagraha was initiated by Mahatma Gandhi.
PM Modi lays foundation stone for the extension of terminal building at Surat Airport. https://t.co/rcrpIEqTSE
— BJP (@BJP4India) January 30, 2019
Referring to the global economic research report, PM Modi congratulated the people of Surat for topping the list of fastest developing cities in the world in the coming decade. He claimed the expansion of Surat Airport will boost the growth of the city and its passenger handling capacity, which is currently 4 lakh passengers per year, will be increased to 26 lakh passengers. He also said that 3 locations- Sabarmati riverfront, Shatrunjay Dam and Statue of Unity have been identified and are surveyed for building water airports at these places. Speaking about the success of UDAAN scheme 1 and 2, PM Modi said his government is working on launching UDAAN scheme 3 to connect different cities in Gujarat with each other as well as with the budding towns of the country.
Using the occasion to list down the developmental work carried out by his government in the last 4.5 years, PM Modi asserted that before BJP came to power in 2014, there were only 80 passport offices across the country and the people in town and smaller cities had to visit metro cities to apply for their passports. In 4.5 years of BJP’s governance, the number of passport offices has increased to more than 400. The government has been committed to connecting the entire country with air connectivity and has been operating at a fast pace in the past 4 years and 17 airports which were underutilised have been upgraded or are under upgradation.
एयर-कनेक्टिविटी के साथ-साथ ये भी ध्यान रखा जा रहा है कि पासपोर्ट के लिए लोगों को बड़े शहरों के चक्कर न लगाने पड़ें।
इतने बड़े देश में पासपोर्ट देने वाले सिर्फ़ 80 थी, जो अब बढ़कर 400 से अधिक हो चुका है: प्रधानमंत्री श्री @narendramodi https://t.co/OUzIqoSVUf pic.twitter.com/M0IhblbqEz
— BJP (@BJP4India) January 30, 2019
Modi also said that 1 crore 30 lakh houses have been built under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana and permission for around 70 lakh more houses has been sanctioned by the government. This is a significant achievement since the previous governments have had built only 25 lakh houses till 2014. Speaking about the reduced electricity bill, Modi informed that his government had distributed about 32 crore LED bulbs which effected a savings of Rs 16,500 crores in the electricity bill.
The RERA law legislated by the Modi government ensures that the hard-earned money of the poor and middle-class families do not remain stuck in infrastructure projects. Under RERA Law, 30-35 thousand builders have registered and are building homes for millions adhering to the rules, the prime minister said.
Talking about the MUDRA initiative, PM Modi said that unguaranteed loans worth Rs 7 lakh crore have been given by the government to those who were seeking funds to start their business. He also stated that about 4 crores 25 lakh people took the loan for the first time and thus the country has added 4 crores 25 lakh first generation entrepreneurs in the last 4.5 years.
