At road project launch, PM Modi hits Congress on delays

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday launched a blistering attack on the previous Congress regime over the delayed Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) expressway project, saying it is a “case study” of how public money is wasted.

Without naming the Congress-led UPA dispensation, Mr Modi blamed it for the slow pace of development of infrastructure projects across the country.

He inaugurated the 83-km stretch of KMP project, also known as western peripheral expressway, and the Rs 580-crore 3.2-km elevated stretch of the Violet Line of the Delhi Metro through video-conferencing from Sultanpur village in Gurgaon district of Haryana.

The metro corridor linking the Kashmere Gate station in New Delhi with Escorts Mujesar in Faridabad was planned for expansion up to Ballabhgarh, an industrial hub.

The BJP government in Haryana has blamed the previous Congress dispensation for stalling and causing delays in the KMP project, which led to  three-fold cost escalation.

Addressing a public gathering after inaugurating and laying the foundation stone of the projects, including a proposed skill university in Palwal, Mr Modi said, “The way work was done on this (KMP) project, is a case study of how public money is wasted, how injustice is done with people. When this project started, it was estimated that Rs 1,200 crore would be spent on it. After years of delay, the cost escalated more than three-fold.”

He said the KMP and metro rail-link projects will improve connectivity in the region and the skill university will help empower the youth.

“Today’s occasion is to remember two pictures — one of the present time, when a work is taken up with determination and is accomplished, which is reflective of the work culture of the BJP governments. The second picture duly reminds us of how work was done during the previous government. That picture reminds us that the work on this expressway had been going on for 12 years. That picture reminds us that expressway project should have been completed and dedicated to people eight-nine years ago, but it did not happen. The way previous regimes functioned it took 12 years for this expressway to get completed,” he said.

The Prime Minister said the KMP project was to be used during the Delhi Commonwealth Games in 2010.

“But what they (previous regime) did to Commonwealth Games (in an apparent reference to CWG scam), the same story became true for this expressway,” he said.

Mr Modi said after the NDA government came to power in 2014, the Centre and the Haryana government engaged regularly to ensure the project is completed soon.

“Sochiye atkane, latkane aur bhatkane waali sanskriti nein Haryana ka, yahan ki janta ka, purey Delhi-NCR ka, kitna bada nuksan kiya hai (Think, how much loss the culture of creating obstacles, delaying and misguiding has caused to Haryana, the people, entire Delhi-NCR,” he said.

“Had the work on this peripheral expressway been completed on time, the traffic situation in Delhi would have been something else,” he said.

He said that his government has spent more than Rs 3 lakh crore on developing 33,000 km of highways.

“Constructing highways, metro rail, developing waterways, helps develop a complete ecosystem, which benefits transports, construction, manufacturing and services sector,” he said.

The first Manesar-Palwal stretch (52 km) of the KMP project was inaugurated in April 2016. The stretch inaugurated on Monday was the last leg of peripheral expressways, with a combined length of 270 km, forming a ring around Delhi.

The eastern peripheral expressway, also known as Kundli-Ghaziabad-Palwal (KGP) expressway, was inaugurated in May this year. Besides reducing travel time, the expressways will decongest Delhi by offering an alternative route to vehicles not destined for Delhi.