Chennai: Sounding the poll bugle for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections even while flagging off high-cost infrastructure projects in Tamil Nadu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that “the development of Tamil Nadu is of great priority to us… When Tamil Nadu grows, India grows”.
Flanked by governor R N Ravi, TN chief minister M K Stalin and his ministerial colleagues in Pallavaram, Modi said the state had been allocated an all time-high budget of more than £60 million this fiscal for rail infrastructure. The average sum allocated each year during the previous Congress-led UPA government in 2009-2014 was less than £90 million.
Between 2004 and 2014, the length of national highways added in Tamil Nadu was about 800 km. Between 2014 and 2023, nearly 2,000 km of national highways were added. In 2014-15, the investment in the development and maintenance of national highways in Tamil Nadu was around £120 million. In 2022-23 it increased six-fold to over £820 million, he said.
“Tamil Nadu is one of India’s growth engines. I am sure that the projects inaugurated today will give a big boost to the aspirations of the people of Tamil Nadu. When top quality infrastructure creates jobs here, incomes rise, and Tamil Nadu grows,” Modi said. He referred to the state as “the home of history and heritage; the land of language and literature and centre of patriotism and national consciousness”.
Earlier, Modi inaugurated the new terminal building of Chennai International Airport, flagged off the Chennai-Coimbatore Vande Bharat Express and took part in the 125th anniversary celebrations of Sri Ramakrishna Mutt at Vivekananda House in the city.