Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Bidar-Kalaburagi Railway line and attacked the ruling Congress government in the state.
The 110-km railway line reduces the distance between Delhi and southern states by 380 km. It will also help develop industrial and tourism sectors in the Hyderabad-Karnataka region.
Addressing the gathering, PM Modi attacked Congress for the delay in the project. "The work which could have been done in 3 years took 20 years. It was stuck for several years," he said.
Development projects have been stalled since the Congress rule are being completed now. Congress only believed in 'Atkana', Latkana' and 'Bhatkana', PM Modi said.
Talking about the development projects the BJP government has taken up, Modi says that he had announced the government will bring electricity to 18,000 houses in 1000 days. "It's not even been 1,000 days yet and 15,000 houses already have access to electricity," he said.
The Prime minister said that he had promised from the ramparts of the Red Fort that he would provide electricity to villages and he has fulfilled that promise. "Villages that did not have power for seven decades, now have access to power.
Comparing the track record of his government to that of the UPA, Modi says that the UPA government had built 1,100km of rail line in the last three years of its tenure while the NDA government has built 2,100km of rail line in the last three years.
Modi said that with its direct benefit transfer scheme, the government has successfully eliminated middlemen. "Rs 57,000 crore from government revenue which earlier went to the middlemen is now going directly to the rightful owner."
Further the prime minister said that the Centre has now taken up the cudgels and would complete the projects that were stalled by the Congress government. "We are fighting corruption, but Congress has become insensitive. When Gujarat was flooded, their ministers were sitting in Bengaluru.
"Implementation of GST was a collective decision of all parties. We are open to incorporate changes to make the system better," he added.
Work on the project began almost 16 years ago. The railway line was conceived when the then Railway Minister C K Jaffer Sharief visited Bidar in 1994 for the inauguration of a Bidar-Bengaluru train.
Initially, the project was estimated to cost Rs 369.7 crore. But the cost has now shot up to Rs 1,542 crore in view of the delay in its implementation owing to a meagre allocation of funds in the budget. The second reason for the delay was unavailability of land from the Gulbarga end.
The 53 km Bidar-Humnabad line, which is part of the Bidar-Gulbarga line, was commissioned three years ago.
OneIndia News
