PM Modi reviews progress of key infrastructure sectors

Prime Minister Narendra Modi reviewed progress of key infrastructure sectors. These include roads, Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana or PMGSY, rural and urban housing, railways, airports and ports. 

The review meeting, which lasted for nearly two hours, was attended by top officials from infrastructure-related Ministries, NITI Aayog, and Prime Minister's Office.

Chief Executive Officer of  NITI Aayog  Amitabh Kant, informed the meeting that the pace of road construction has picked up significantly. 

The average road length constructed per day in the last Financial Year was 26.93 kilometres while it was  11.67 kilometres in Finacial Year 13-14.

The Prime Minister was informed about progress made in digitisation of the transport sector. Over 22 percent of toll revenue now comes from electronic toll collection. 

The Sukhad Yatra App, which provides information about road conditions, and facilitates lodging of complaints, has seen over one lakh downloads so far. The Prime Minister called for faster progress in electronic toll collection.

Under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, rural roads have now connected 88 percent of all eligible habitations. Over 44,000 villages have been connected in the period from 2014 to 2018, as compared to about 35,000 in the preceding four year period. 

Green technologies, and non-conventional materials such as waste plastic and fly ash,



are being used in rural road construction.

In the railways sector, there has been significant addition in capacity and rolling stock. Additions in new lines, doubling and gauge conversion between 2014 and 2018, was to the extent of 9528 kilometres. This is 56 percent higher than the preceding four year period.

In the aviation sector also, passenger traffic has grown by over 62 percent in the four year period between 2014 and 2018, as against 18 percent in the preceding four year period. Under the UDAN scheme, 27 airports are now operational in tier 2 and tier 3 cities.

In the ports sector, traffic volume in major ports increased by 17 percent in the period between 2014 and 2018. In the rural housing sector, the Prime Minister was informed that over one crore houses have been constructed in the period from 2014 to 2018, as compared to about 25 lakh houses in the preceding four year period. 

This has boosted employment in the housing sector and related construction industries. According to an independent study, the average construction completion time has dropped sharply, from 314 days in 2015-16 to 114 days in 2017-18. Stress is also being given to disaster resilience and low-cost housing design typologies.

In urban housing, emphasis is being laid on new construction technologies. 54 lakh houses have been sanctioned under Pradhan MantriAwaas Yojana (Urban), since the inception of the scheme.