Economy on right track: PM

Manas Dasgupta

Ahmedabad, October 22

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today launched a scathing attack on the Congress, accusing it of strangulating state’s growth even as he claimed that the country’s economy had “come back on the right track” after the BJP government came to power at the Centre.

Addressing a series of meetings at Ghogha, Dahej and Vadodara during his day-long visit to poll-bound Gujarat, Modi said the previous Congress governments had “limited vision” and “hatred for development”.

Modi inaugurated the first phase of the “Ghogha-Dahej roll-on, roll-off (Ro-Ro) ferry service” at Ghogha in Bhavnagar district, linking the Saurashtra region with south Gujarat through the sea route, and dedicated to the nation a cattle feed project in Bhavnagar, besides inaugurating a number of schemes of the Vadodara Municipal Corporation, worth over Rs 1,140 crore in all.

Pointing out the hurdles faced in the development of the Alang ship-breaking yard, the biggest of its kind in Asia, off the Bhavnagar coast, Modi claimed that subsequent Congress regimes at the Centre had tried to block Gujarat’s progress in the name of “environmental protection”.

He said he first heard about the Ghogha-Dahej ferry service as a child. “The Congress governments formulated a policy in such a way that if I (as CM) had not changed the rules in 2012, the dream would never have been realised.”

The then Congress government had left it to a private ferry service operator to develop terminals at both ends and undertake dredging and other operational measures. “Why should anyone be interested in such a project?” he said.

“A project, which had the potential to change the face of both the Saurashtra region and south Gujarat by shortening the 360-km distance to mere 31 km, couldn’t see the light of the day because of this.”

Modi claimed the Congress governments had framed rules for dairy development in such a way that cooperative dairies could never come up in the entire Kutch-Saurashtra region. “The BJP government changed the rules allowing farmers in the region to earn additional income from animal husbandry,” he claimed.

He accused ex-PM Jawaharlal Nehru of blocking the Narmada dam project and trying to hinder the reconstruction of the Somnath temple. The PM said plans were afoot to expand the Ghogha-Dahej ferry service to Hazira in Surat and later take it all the way to Mumbai. At Dahej, Modi said the fundamentals of the economy were strong and in the right direction. Allaying apprehensions that demonetisation and the GST had retarded growth, Modi claimed that nation’s forex reserves had risen from $30,000 crore to $40,000 crore. “Many economists are saying that fundamentals of country’s economy are strong,” he said, adding his government had initiated several steps to prop up the economy and would continue with its endeavour.

Ro-ro cuts distance From 360 km to 31 km

• The roll on, roll off (Ro-Ro) ferry will ply the Gulf of Khambhat of the Arabian Sea 
• It will reduce the travel time between Bhavnagar district in western Gujarat's Saurashtra region and Dahej in Bharuch district in south Gujarat from seven hours to one hour, cutting the distance between two places to 31 km from 360 km
• To start with, two ships — MV Jay Sophia and Island Jed — can take 300 and 239 passengers, including crew members, respectively