PM asks railways to speed up redevelopment of stations

New Delhi, May 30: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today asked the railways to speed up redevelopment of stations and substantially raise its "level of ambition" in this regard as he reviewed the performance of the sector at a meeting here.

At the meeting where the performance of Roads and Highways Ministry was also assessed, Modi pitched for more private investment in the sector and adoption of best practices in road development after studying various models across the country.

He stressed the need for decongesting critical stretches of highways and adoption of latest technologies for toll collection. In the course of the review of the railways sector, it was noted that the capital investment in 2015-16 was over Rs 93,000 crore, "which represents a massive increase of 65 per cent over the previous year, and is the highest-ever", a PMO statement said.

"The Prime Minister stressed upon the need to speed up the redevelopment of Railway Stations, and urged the railways to substantially raise its level of ambition in this regard," it added.

He emphasized the need for the railways to upgrade and diversify the uses of its infrastructure, the statement said. "Centre is working on upgrading rail infra. In rural areas this will boost skill development & increase non-fare revenue for railways," Modi tweeted later.

"Progress in commissioning of lines & electrification of lines has been commendable. Discussed speeding up process of redeveloping stations," he said in another tweet. The PMO added that 1780 km of rail lines have been commissioned and 1730 kms electrified during 2015-16, which represent the best performance on these metrics in railway history.

"As far as roads are concerned, completion of highways is going on at remarkable pace. Spoke on need of more private investment in the sector," the Prime Minister said in a tweet. "Also emphasised on decongesting critical stretches and invigorating the roads & highways sector with latest technology," he added.

At the meeting, the the Prime Minister was informed that over 6000 kms of highways were completed in 2015-16, while contracts for another 10,098 kilometres were awarded in the same period, the PMO said.

He stressed on the need for studying various models of road development across the country, and adopting the best practices, so that more private investment can be brought into the highway construction sector, it added. He also stressed the need for decongesting critical stretches, and adopt latest technologies for toll collection.

PTI