Gandhinagar, March 25 (IANS). Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Gujarat on March 31. During this, he will inaugurate and lay the foundation stone of many projects related to urban development.
The visit comes at a time when the state is witnessing rapid urbanization and infrastructure expansion over the past two decades. This tour is also special because Gujarat is celebrating completion of 20 years since 2005. In 2005, the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi had declared that year as the ‘Year of the Urban’, the main objective of which was to strengthen the urban infrastructure.
The state government said that this journey of urban development will be completed in two decades by 2025. During this period, Gujarat has seen tremendous progress in the field of planned urban development and civic infrastructure. Officials said there has been expansion of roads, street lights, drinking water pipelines, sewerage systems and urban green spaces in cities across the state.
Housing has also been provided to economically and socially weaker sections in urban areas. Along with this, several town planning schemes have also been implemented with the aim of accelerating the pace of urbanization and making life more accessible.
To maintain the pace of this progress, the Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel-led government had declared the year 2025 as the ‘Urban Development Year’ in the last state budget. Gujarat’s transport infrastructure has also been vastly expanded through projects related to road, rail and air connectivity.
To handle the increasing traffic, overbridges and underbridges are being built in big cities like Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Vadodara and Surat. Sudarshan Setu bridge connecting Dwarka and Bet Dwarka has been opened. Along with this, approach roads and parking facilities have also started, making it easier to travel between these two places.
Work is underway on several highway and expressway projects, including the Jamnagar-Bhatinda Highway, Vadodara-Mumbai Expressway and Porbandar-Dwarka National Highway.
The state government has also announced two greenfield corridors to strengthen regional connectivity, including the 430 km long ‘Namo Shakti Expressway’ from Deesa to Pipavav and the 680 km long ‘Somnath- Dwarka Expressway’.
Urban transportation has also expanded with the Metro Rail Project. Phase II of the Ahmedabad Metro has recently been completed, improving connectivity between Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar. At the same time, 24 trainsets have been ordered for Surat Metro.
The work of Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet Train Project is also progressing rapidly in Gujarat. Since the first Vande Bharat train was flagged off in the state in September 2022, five such trains have been operational so far.
Under the ‘Amrit Bharat Station’ scheme, 89 railway stations in Gujarat are being redeveloped, out of which 18 stations have been inaugurated.
The infrastructure of the airports has also been upgraded. Hirasar Greenfield Airport in Rajkot has been built at a cost of Rs 1,405 crore, while Surat International Airport has been established with an investment of Rs 3,400 crore.
Regional connectivity has been expanded under the ‘UDAN’ scheme, leading to increased services at Bhavnagar, Jamnagar, Kandla, Keshod, Mundra and Porbandar airports.
Several projects have been implemented under ‘Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation’ (AMRUT) 2.0 to improve water supply and sewerage systems in the urban amenities sector.
–IANS
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