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PM lays foundation stone of road and ropeway projects worth more than Rs 3400 crore in Mana, Uttarakhand

Published By : Admin | October 21, 2022 | 13:09 IST
“For me, every village at the border is the first village of the country”
“Pride in our heritage and all possible effort for development are the two major pillars for the developed India of the 21st century”
“Devotees all over the world will rejoice in completion of these development projects”
“Shramjeevis are doing the work of God, you care for them, never consider them just paid workers”
“The dilapidated condition of these shrines was a clear sign of the slavery mentality”
“Today, Kashi, Ujjain, Ayodhya and many more spiritual centres are reclaiming their lost pride and legacy”
“Take out 5 percent of your travel budget to buy local products”
“Resilience of the hill people was used as an excuse against them”
“We started working from these border areas, marking them as the beginning of prosperity”
“We are making efforts so that border areas have a vibrant life where development is celebrated”

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of road and ropeway projects worth more than Rs 3400 crore in Mana, Uttarakhand today. Earlier in the day, the Prime Minister visited Kedarnath and performed darshan and pooja at Shri Kedarnath Temple. He also visited the Adi Guru Shankaracharya Samadhi Sthal and reviewed the work in progress along Mandakini Asthapath and Saraswati Asthapath. The Prime Minister also visited Badrinath and performed darshan and pooja at Shri Badrinath Temple. He then reviewed the work in progress along the Alaknanda riverfront.

Addressing the gathering, the Prime Minister expressed his feeling of bliss after performing darshan and pooja at the shrines. “My life became blessed, the mind became happy and these moments became alive”, he said. Recalling the words that he spoke during his earlier visit that the decade will belong to Uttarakhand, the Prime Minister said that he has full faith that Baba Kedar and Badri Vishal will bless those words. “Today, I am here among you to reiterate the same resolve with these new projects”, he said.

Noting that Mana village is known as the last village at India’s borders, the Prime Minister said, “For me, every village at the border is the first village of the country and the people residing near the border make for the country's strong guard. The Prime Minister recalled his long association with the area and his continuous espousal of its importance. He also noted their support and confidence. He thanked the people of Mana for their continuous love and support.

The Prime Minister talked about the two major pillars of the developed India of the 21st century. “First, pride in our heritage and second, all possible efforts for development. Today Uttarakhand is strengthening both these pillars”, he said. He informed that while he felt blessed by the Darshans at Kedarnath and Badri Vishal, he also reviewed the development projects as “130 crore people are also a form of God for me.” he said.

Mentioning the two ropeways Kedarnath to Gaurikund and Hemkund ropeway, the Prime Minister credited the inspiration and progress to the blessings of Baba Kedarnath, Badri Vishal and Sikh Gurus. The Prime Minister said devotees all over the world will rejoice in this unprecedented initiative.

The Prime Minister prayed for the safety of Shramjeevis and other personnel involved in these projects and acknowledged their devotion in these difficult working conditions. “They are doing the work of God, you care for them, never consider them just paid workers, they are contributing to a divine project”, the Prime Minister said. Referring to his interactions with the Shramjeevis at Kedarnath, the Prime Minister said that it was a great experience when workers and engineers compared their tasks to worshipping Baba Kedar.

Recalling his appeal to the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort to break free from the colonial mindset, the Prime Minister explained the need to make this appeal after 75 years of independence and underlined that mentality of slavery had shackled the nation so profoundly that some people in the country considered the work of development in the country as a crime. “The progress made in the development of the country is weighed upon a beam scale of slavery”, the Prime Minister said. He further added that for a long time, the places of worship in the country have been looked down upon. “People from across the world never stop praising these shrines”, he added. Recalling the past attempts, the Prime Minister pointed out that everyone remembers what happened during the construction of the Somnath temple and Ram temple.

“The dilapidated condition of these shrines was a clear sign of the slavery mentality”, Shri Modi said. He further added that even the paths that led to these shrines were in an extremely poor state. “The spiritual centres of India remained neglected for decades”, he continued. “And it was due to the selfishness of the previous governments.” He pointed out these people had forgotten what these spiritual centres mean to crores of Indians. The Prime Minister interjected that neither the significance of our spiritual centres was determined by their efforts nor was there any decline in the faith held by the people towards these spiritual centres. “Today, Kashi, Ujjain, Ayodhya and many more spiritual centres are reclaiming their lost pride and legacy. Kedarnath, Badrinath and Hemkund Sahib are holding the faith while connecting the services with technology”, he underlined, “From Ram temple in Ayodhya to Maa Kalika temple in Pavagadh, Gujarat to Devi Vindhyachal Corridor, India is announcing its cultural and traditional upliftment.” He further added that pilgrims will find it easy to reach these centres of faith and the services that are being introduced will make the lives of the elderly easy-going.

The Prime Minister underlined another aspect of rejuvenation of these places of faith i.e. aspect of Ease of Living of people in the hilly areas and employment opportunities for the youth of these areas. “Rail, roads, and ropeways bring employment with them and make life easy and empowered. These facilities enhance tourism and make transportation easy in the hilly area. Drones are also being planned to be deployed to improve logistics in these difficult areas”, Shri Modi added.

Praising the local products and efforts of the local self-help groups, the Prime Minister made an appeal to the people of the country. He asked the people who go for tourism in any part of the country to take out 5 percent of their travel budget to buy local products. “This will give a big push to local products and will give immense satisfaction to you too”, the Prime Minister said.

The Prime Minister lamented the fact that the resilience of the people from hilly areas was used against them. Their hard-working nature and strength were used as an excuse to deprive them of any amenities. They were last in priority for amenities and benefits. We had to change this, the Prime Minister said. He elaborated “Earlier, the areas which were ignored as the frontiers of the country's borders, we started working from there marking them as the beginning of prosperity. We tried to find solutions to these challenges of the mountains, which used to waste a lot of energy of the local people.” He listed initiatives like electrification of all the villages, Har Ghar Jal, connecting Panchayats with optical fiber, health and wellness centres in every village, priority to hilly areas during vaccination, free ration to poor during the pandemic as measures of furthering the Ease of Living and providing dignity to the people. The Prime Minister said that these facilities give youth new opportunities and boost tourism. “I am happy that the Double-Engine government is giving continuous financial help for the skill development of the youth to improve the facilities of homestays. The campaign to connect the youth of the border areas with the NCC is also preparing them for a bright future,” he said.

The Prime Minister remarked, “Modern connectivity is a guarantee of national defence.” He underlined that the government is taking one step after the other in this direction for the last 8 years. Highlighting the two major connectivity schemes launched a few years back, the Prime Minister gave examples of Bharatmala and Sagarmala. He informed that under Bharatmala, the border areas of the country are being connected with the best and widest highways, and with Sagarmala, the connectivity of India’s seashores is being strengthened. The Prime Minister further informed that the government has executed unprecedented expansion of border connectivity from Jammu and Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh in the last 8 years. “Since 2014, the Border Roads Organization has constructed about 7,000 km of new roads and built hundreds of bridges. Many important tunnels have also been completed”, the Prime Minister said.

The Prime Minister threw light on the Parvatmala Yojana which is improving the connectivity of hilly states. He pointed out that the construction of a huge network of ropeways has begun under this scheme in Uttarakhand and Himachal. The Prime Minister emphasised the need to change the perception of the border areas just as the military establishment did. He said, “We are making efforts so that these areas have a vibrant life where development is celebrated.” The Prime Minister stated that The road that will be built from Mana to Mana Pass will benefit the region immensely. With the widening of Joshimath to Malari road, it will be very easy for common people as well as our soldiers to reach the border, he said.

Concluding the address, the Prime Minister assured Uttarakhand that hard work and dedication will always work towards fulfilling the hopes and aspirations of the state. “I have come here to seek blessings from Baba Kedar and Badri Vishal to fulfil this trust”, the Prime Minister concluded.

Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, Shri Pushkar Singh Dhami, Governor of Uttarakhand, Retd. Gen Gurmit Singh, Member of Parliament, Shri Tirath Singh Rawat, Minister of Uttarakhand Government, Shri Dhan Singh Rawat and BJP State President, Shri Mahendra Bhatt were those present on the occasion.

Background

The ropeway in Kedarnath will be around 9.7 Km in length and will connect Gaurikund to Kedarnath, thereby reducing the travel time between the two places from 6-7 hours at present to merely 30 mins. The Hemkund ropeway will connect Govindghat to Hemkund Sahib. It will be around 12.4 Km in length and will reduce the travel time from more than a day to only about 45 mins. This ropeway will also connect Ghangaria, which is the gateway to Valley of Flowers National Park.

Developed at a cumulative cost of around Rs 2430 crore, the ropeways will be an environment-friendly mode of transport making the journey safe, secure and stable. This major infrastructure development will give a boost to religious tourism, thereby providing a fillip to the economic development in the region and leading to the creation of multiple employment opportunities.

The foundation stones of road widening projects worth around Rs 1000 crore will also be laid during the visit. The two road widening projects - from Mana to Mana Pass (NH07) and from Joshimath to Malari (NH107B) - shall be another step towards providing last-mile all-weather road connectivity to our border areas. Apart from boosting connectivity, these projects will also prove beneficial from a strategic point of view as well.

Kedarnath and Badrinath are one of the most important Hindu shrines. The area is also known for one of the revered Sikh Pilgrim sites - Hemkund Sahib. The connectivity projects being undertaken show the Prime Minister’s commitment to ease access and improve basic infrastructure in places of religious significance.

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Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi chaired the 50th meeting of PRAGATI - the ICT-enabled multi-modal platform for Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation - earlier today, marking a significant milestone in a decade-long journey of cooperative, outcome-driven governance under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. The milestone underscores how technology-enabled leadership, real-time monitoring and sustained Centre-State collaboration have translated national priorities into measurable outcomes on the ground.

Review undertaken in 50th PRAGATI

During the meeting, Prime Minister reviewed five critical infrastructure projects across sectors, including Road, Railways, Power, Water Resources, and Coal. These projects span 5 States, with a cumulative cost of more than ₹40,000 crore.

During a review of PM SHRI scheme, Prime Minister emphasized that the PM SHRI scheme must become a national benchmark for holistic and future ready school education and said that implementation should be outcome oriented rather than infrastructure centric. He asked all the Chief Secretaries to closely monitor the PM SHRI scheme. He further emphasized that efforts must be made for making PM SHRI schools benchmark for other schools of state government. He also suggested that Senior officers of the government should undertake field visits to evaluate the performance of PM SHRI schools.

On this special occasion, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi described the milestone as a symbol of the deep transformation India has witnessed in the culture of governance over the last decade. Prime Minister underlined that when decisions are timely, coordination is effective, and accountability is fixed, the speed of government functioning naturally increases and its impact becomes visible directly in citizens’ lives.

Genesis of PRAGATI

Recalling the origin of the approach, the Prime Minister said that as Chief Minister of Gujarat he had launched the technology-enabled SWAGAT platform (State Wide Attention on Grievances by Application of Technology) to understand and resolve public grievances with discipline, transparency, and time-bound action.

Building on that experience, after assuming office at the Centre, he expanded the same spirit nationally through PRAGATI bringing large projects, major programmes and grievance redressal onto one integrated platform for review, resolution, and follow-up.

Scale and Impact

Prime Minister noted that over the years the PRAGATI led ecosystem has helped accelerate projects worth more than 85 lakh crore rupees and supported the on-ground implementation of major welfare programmes at scale.

Since 2014, 377 projects have been reviewed under PRAGATI, and across these projects, 2,958 out of 3,162 identified issues - i.e. around 94 percent - have been resolved, significantly reducing delays, cost overruns and coordination failures.

Prime Minister said that as India moves at a faster pace, the relevance of PRAGATI has grown further. He noted that PRAGATI is essential to sustain reform momentum and ensure delivery.

Unlocking Long-Pending Projects

Prime Minister said that since 2014, the government has worked to institutionalise delivery and accountability creating a system where work is pursued with consistent follow-up and completed within timelines and budgets. He said projects that were started earlier but left incomplete or forgotten have been revived and completed in national interest.

Several projects that had remained stalled for decades were completed or decisively unlocked after being taken up under the PRAGATI platform. These include the Bogibeel rail-cum-road bridge in Assam, first conceived in 1997; the Jammu-Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla rail link, where work began in 1995; the Navi Mumbai International Airport, conceptualised in 1997; the modernisation and expansion of the Bhilai Steel Plant, approved in 2007; and the Gadarwara and LARA Super Thermal Power Projects, sanctioned in 2008 and 2009 respectively. These outcomes demonstrate the impact of sustained high-level monitoring and inter-governmental coordination.

From silos to Team India

Prime Minister pointed out that projects do not fail due to lack of intent alone—many fail due to lack of coordination and silo-based functioning. He said PRAGATI has helped address this by bringing all stakeholders onto one platform, aligned to one shared outcome.

He described PRAGATI as an effective model of cooperative federalism, where the Centre and States work as one team, and ministries and departments look beyond silos to solve problems. Prime Minister said that since its inception, around 500 Secretaries of Government of India and Chief Secretaries of States have participated in PRAGATI meetings. He thanked them for their participation, commitment, and ground-level understanding, which has helped PRAGATI evolve from a review forum into a genuine problem-solving platform.

Prime Minister said that the government has ensured adequate resources for national priorities, with sustained investments across sectors. He called upon every Ministry and State to strengthen the entire chain from planning to execution, minimise delays from tendering to ground delivery.

Reform, Perform, Transform

On the occasion, the Prime Minister shared clear expectations for the next phase, outlining his vision of Reform, Perform and Transform saying “Reform to simplify, Perform to deliver, Transform to impact.”

He said Reform must mean moving from process to solutions, simplifying procedures and making systems more friendly for Ease of Living and Ease of Doing Business.

He said Perform must mean to focus equally on time, cost, and quality. He added that outcome-driven governance has strengthened through PRAGATI and must now go deeper.

He further said that Transform must be measured by what citizens actually feel about timely services, faster grievance resolution, and improved ease of living.

PRAGATI and the journey to Viksit Bharat @ 2047

Prime Minister said Viksit Bharat @ 2047 is both a national resolve and a time-bound target, and PRAGATI is a powerful accelerator to achieve it. He encouraged States to institutionalise similar PRAGATI-like mechanisms especially for the social sector at the level of Chief Secretary.

To take PRAGATI to the next level, Prime Minister emphasised the use of technology in each and every phase of the project life cycle.

Prime Minister concluded by stating that PRAGATI@50 is not merely a milestone it is a commitment. PRAGATI must be strengthened further in the years ahead to ensure faster execution, higher quality, and measurable outcomes for citizens.

Presentation by Cabinet Secretary

On the occasion of the 50th PRAGATI milestone, the Cabinet Secretary made a brief presentation highlighting PRAGATI’s key achievements and outlining how it has reshaped India’s monitoring and coordination ecosystem, strengthening inter-ministerial and Centre-State follow-through, and reinforcing a culture of time-bound closure, which resulted in faster implementation of projects, improved last-mile delivery of Schemes and Programmes and quality resolution of public grievances.