Daijiworld Media Network - Vadodara

Vadodara, Sep 8: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday criticised the pace of infrastructure development under previous governments, saying files related to the Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) project spent years moving between government offices without substantial progress.

Speaking in Vadodara after dedicating the final sections of the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC), Modi traced the project's origins to 2004 and said a special company was formed in 2006 to execute it. However, he claimed that little physical work had been completed by 2014.

"The files were travelling from one table to another," Modi said, adding with a jibe that even the files "did not get a dedicated corridor" and remained "stuck, hanging and wandering."

The Prime Minister said the project was conceived in 2004, when many of the young people attending Tuesday's programme had not yet been born. He contrasted the years spent processing the project with the pace of work after 2014.

"In the seven to eight years before my government came to power, not even one kilometre of the freight corridor had been completed. If the country had been run at that pace, I do not know whether even three or four generations after you would have seen it completed," he said.

Modi credited voters in Gujarat and Vadodara for sending him to Delhi in 2014 and said the lessons he learnt in Gujarat influenced the approach adopted towards the project after he became Prime Minister.

"We started the work of giving it speed as soon as we reached there," he said.

According to Modi, more than 2,800 km of the freight corridor has now been completed, with the Eastern and Western Dedicated Freight Corridors emerging as major foundations for India's trade and commerce.

The Prime Minister dedicated three final sections of the WDFC, covering 326 route kilometres and involving an investment of more than Rs 20,700 crore.

The sections are Sanand (North)-Makarpura, New Umbergaon-New Saphale and New Saphale-JNPT, bringing the entire DFC network into operation.

The DFC project was conceived to separate freight traffic from passenger railway operations, enabling goods trains to run on dedicated routes. Its completion is expected to increase freight capacity, reduce transit time and improve connectivity between industrial centres and ports.

Modi said the DFC demonstrated how India's "working culture" had changed over the past 12 years.

The freight corridor project was part of a wider Vadodara programme involving development projects worth more than Rs 35,000 crore.

Besides the DFC, Modi dedicated the Jobat-Tanda Road railway line and laid foundation stones for three railway projects covering 329 km at a cost of more than Rs 9,700 crore.

These include the third and fourth railway lines between Vadodara and Ratlam, gauge conversion of the Miyagam Karjan-Choranda-Malsar section and doubling of the Vishwamitri-Dabhoi section.

Three highway projects worth around Rs 1,780 crore and state government projects valued at around Rs 2,600 crore were also included in the programme.