Shinde-Fadnavis jodi will make Mumbai’s dreams come true: PM Modi
The Hindu
Prime Minister inaugurated and laid foundation stones for various projects worth ₹38,000 crore, including two new Mumbai Metro lines
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that while the world’s biggest economies are in turmoil, India is providing subsidies and free rations to over 80 crore citizens.
“Amid the global slowdown too, the country continues to invest in physical and social infrastructure, which shows that commitment of our ‘double-engine’ sarkar (government) towards providing better amenities to the poorest of the poor and development of the nation,” Mr. Modi said.
He was speaking from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) Grounds at the Bandra-Kurla Complex in Mumbai, where he inaugurated two new Mumbai Metro lines — Line 2A (Dahisar to Andheri West D.N. Nagar) and Line 7 (Dahisar East to Andheri East) worth ₹12,600 crore, PM SAVNidhi Yojana; and 20 ‘Hinduhridaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Aapla Dawakhana’ clinics.
Mr. Modi also laid foundation stones for concretisation of roads; seven sewage treatment plants to be built at a cost of ₹17,200 crore; and the redevelopment of three hospitals — a 360-bed Bandhup multi-speciality municipal hospital, a 306-bed hospital in Goregaon (West), and a 152-bed maternity home in Oshiwara.
The PM also laid the foundation stone for the redevelopment of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, which aims at decongesting the southern heritage node of the terminus, and conservation and restoration of the iconic British-era structure.
Lauding development in the country’s financial capital, Mr. Modi said he has confidence in the jodi of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Davendra Fadnavis. “They will make the dreams of citizens of Mumbai come true. They will change the face of Mumbai and there will be a complete makeover in the future,” he said.
The alliance government led by Mr. Shinde and Mr. Fadnavis is expected to use the Prime Minister’s Thursday visit as an opportunity to gain power in the upcoming Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) civic body elections to end the monopoly of the Uddhav Thackery-led Shiv Sena.
No room for complacency till counting is completed, Chandrababu Naidu tells TDP-BJP-JSP contestants. The TDP-BJP-JSP alliance will register a comfortable victory in the general elections over the YSRCP, he says. Alleging that the YSRCP has conspired to create disturbances on the counting day, the TDP national president advises the chief counting agents and their teams to see to it that the officials adhere to norms related to counting.