MUMBAI: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said India is a one of the fastest growing economy and hoped to attain super economy status by 2022 while speaking in a function while inaugurating several railway projects for Lucknow of worth Rs 4000 crore at Northern Railway Stadium here on Sunday.
“We are among top ten countries of the world on GDP count. We soon will be among the five top countries on this count and our GDP will be in double digit which presently is about 7.5 per cent,” he said. He said the work at Kukrail Bridge, Faizabad road, will start in 2-3 days. “The work was in limbo for last 8-9 years .Now every hindrance had been removed after a talk with the defense department and UP government,” he said while invoking BJP stalwart leader Atal Bihari Bajpai whom he said was one of the most popular leaders from the Lucknow. “I dedicate all these railway projects to Atal Bihari Bajpai,’ he said and the announcement rented the air with zindabad in the name of Singh at the program venue.
Coal and Railway Minister Piyush Goel spoke about setting a target of manufacturing 1400 LSB coaches from Rae Bareilly’s Modern Coach Factory while obliquely criticizing the rival Congress for not doing anything in the past. “The factory was set up in 2007 but no work was done. In year 2011-12 the then government purchased coaches from Chennai and Kapoorthala coach factories and claimed to have manufactured the same from the factory after refurbishing them,’ Goel said. He informed that the factory manufactured 700 coaches this financial year only.
Goel announced that the union government is going to recruit 1 lakh youths (90,000 for railways and 95,00 in Railway Protection Force) while adding that the women candidates will have 50 per cent share in the vacancies for the RPF. The union minister said a Coach Refurbishment factory will be set up in Bundelkhan while a Loco Shed is on the anvil in Gorakhpur.