PM reviews progress of infrastructure projects

NEW DELHI, May 2: Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi on Saturday chaired a high-level meeting to review the status of various infrastructure projects in the country. The meeting also took stock of the progress in rural infrastructure, power, coal, renewable energy and petroleum and natural gas. "Besides a broad overview of the infrastructure scenario in the country, the meeting focused on the specific sectors of rural infrastructure, power, coal, renewable energy and petroleum and natural gas," an official statement stated on Saturday. 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 were present at the meeting, it added. Senior officials from NITI Aayog as well as infrastructure Ministries and PMO were also in attendance. "The Prime Minister reviewed the status of stalled projects in the infrastructure sector. He was apprised of the steps being taken to enhance infrastructure creation in accordance with the Prime Minister's vision for the 75th year of India's independence," the statement read. 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. Modi stressed on the need for government departments to work towards initialising 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 realised to the extent possible. In the power sector, the Prime Minister reiterated his emphasis on electrification of the unconnected villages at the earliest. A road map on this was presented to him. Modi also 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, the statement added.