Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday chaired the 42nd meeting of Pragati to expedite infrastructure projects worth Rs 1.21-lakh crore spread across 10 states. Pragati or Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation is a platform devised by the NDA government to speed up project implementation, bringing states and central ministries on a platform to resolve outstanding issues that might be holding up the projects. The 12 projects reviewed on Wednesday, seven were from the Health ministry, two from Railways, and one project each from Road Transport and Highways, Steel, and Petroleum and Natural Gas. The projects included the construction of an AIIMS each in Rajkot, Jammu, Awantipora, Bibinagar, Madurai, Rewari, and Darbhanga. “These projects have a cumulative cost of over Rs 1,21,300 crore and relate to 10 states, including Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Odisha and Haryana, and 2 UTs Jammu and Kashmir, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli,” the PMO said in a statement. So far, the Pragati platform has reviewed 340 projects worth around Rs 17.05 lakh crore, it said. According to the PMO, Modi asked stakeholders to resolve outstanding issues and adhere to the timeline for the projects’ completion, keeping in view their significance for the public. The Prime Minister also reviewed the 'PM Svanidhi scheme' meant for street vendors and urged the state chief secretaries to identify and cover all eligible street vendors in urban areas, especially in tier-II and tier-III cities, under the scheme.
