Prime Minister Modi visited Gujarat and launched development projects worth over 5,900 crore rupees in Mehsana on October 30. He first went to Banaskantha where he paid obeisance to the goddess at the Amba Temple and these projects involved multiple sectors like rail, road, drinking water, irrigation and much more.<br />”&nbsp;<br />”<span style="color: #212529;">In Akashvani’s program Spotlight, while discussing on the significance of these development&nbsp;</span>projects<span style="color: #212529;">,&nbsp;</span>Political Analyst<span style="color: #212529;">,&nbsp;</span>Vinay Kumar<span style="color: #212529;">&nbsp;said</span>,&nbsp;Gujarat is the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Prime Minister has a vast and very in-depth knowledge of the state and he knows where these projects are needed, where infrastructure needs to be pushed a little more and where civic amenities are lacking. So, his stress was more on not only infrastructure development but improving connectivity within the state which will also not only help these districts but districts around Mehsana and Sabarkantha, Gandhinagar, Patan, Aravali, basically North and Central Gujarat.<br />”&nbsp;<br />”Vinay Kumar<span style="color: #212529;">&nbsp;said,&nbsp;</span>Gujarat not only leads in petrochemicals and ports and road networks but also in the rail project which the Prime Minister today inaugurated the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor. Gujarat is also gradually becoming a hub of automobile manufacturing facilities because the country's biggest automobile manufacturer Maruti Suzuki India Limited is setting up a plant in Sanand. If you see these schemes which include sectors like drinking water which is in Palanpur barrage on Sabarmati river in Mehsana, Dharoi Dam based in Palanpur, sewage treatment plant and management plant in Gandhinagar, also in Patan, Banaskantha and Mehsana. These projects will not only push the economic development and infrastructure growth in the state but will also help in furthering the government's aim and purpose of boosting and improving the ease of living for the people in Gujarat. I think all sectors will join hands to ensure a wholesome and holistic development of the state in the time to come.<br />”&nbsp;<br />”Talking about Western Dedicated Freight Corridor, he said the corridor is already work in progress and this Dedicated Freight Corridor has been, work on this has been going on in parts, and in some places, the work is quite advanced and when it links the entire Western sector of the country from the North, the problem is, that even if you have fast trains like Vande Bharat being manufactured in India, they are not designed to run on the same railway tracks on which we run goods train which carry heavy loads. So, naturally the track over the years, it withers away, the strength is not the same and you need constant repair and maintenance. But if you have a Freight Corridor which is dedicated only for freight trains, not only the freight trains, not only the goods trains can run at a higher speed but it'll also consume less time in transporting goods. So, that's I think a very good use of this Dedicated Freight Corridor. And next to Gujarat we have Rajasthan on the one side and any train which goes to Mumbai from Delhi, it passes through Gujarat and then enters Maharashtra. We also have an ambitious bullet train project coming along the same kind of coordinated alignments. So, these are big ticket projects which if our country has to progress economically and become the third largest economy in the world, these infrastructure development projects are working for us and at a faster pace and which will provide convenience not only to the manufacturers but also in transportation of these finished products and goods and petrochemicals and fertilizers and chemicals to other parts of the country. So, that is one of the basic requirements of such a Freight Corridor. The traffic density on a single railway track will be reduced because you will have two different corridors, two different tracks for goods trains as well as passenger trains. The basic philosophy is that the consumers will also benefit from the Dedicated Corridor.<br />”&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />”Vinay Kumar also said that this government, ever since Prime Minister Modi took over in 2014, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, the mission of Clean India has been the top priority and practically we have done away with open defecation in the country. So, this sewage treatment plant, untreated sewage, still a large percentage of untreated sewage flows into our rivers, finds its way into our rivers, that is also a very crucial concern for the town planners and for the state government also. The sewage treatment plant in Patan, Banaskantha and Mehsana, septage management in Gandhinagar will also go a long way in making life easier and safer for the people living there. So, not only in these districts but I think downstream also it will improve the quality and availability of drinking water. These civic facilities are very much essential for development to take place.&nbsp;You can't have silos, you will develop only infrastructure and look at these projects where there is a large number of population and particularly North and Central Gujarat which is said to be home to sandy soil as the Prime Minister said. Unfavorable climatic conditions and sandy soils are the two major hurdles for agricultural workers and farmers there but even then Gujarat has been able to overcome these challenges. Mr. Kumar said, this is a very well thought out project which will be of great use and great purpose to the people living in these districts and downstream also.<br />”&nbsp;<br />”<span style="color: #222222;">Listen to Full discussion on:&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0ZXgKtCdK0&t=11s" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?vR0ZXgKtCdK0t11s&source=gmail&ust=1698842490819000&usg=AOvVaw1Nc2_k-6Sv-iHXW7kF64-3">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0ZXgKtCdK0&amp;t=11s</a><br />