BJP manifesto promises major infrastructure push

The BJP's manifesto for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls promised a major infrastructure push, including setting up of "next generation infrastructure" like gas and water grids, information superrhighway (i-way), doubling functional airports in the country and wayside amenities along all national highways.

It also promised to set up a new Water Ministry which would "expeditedly take forward the ambitious programme, conceptualized by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, for linking rivers from different parts of the country and ensure a solution to the problems of drinking water and irrigation". 

With the tagline "Sankalpit Bharat, Sashakt Bharat" (Committed India, Strong India), the manifesto was unveiled at the party headquarters here on Monday by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP President Amit Shah and Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj among others.

The party said in its manifesto that it would continue more and more public and private investment and ground level management on building of infrastructure which would not only ensure efficiency in the economy, but would also lead to creation of a large number of jobs.

It promised to cover 50 cities with a strong metro network over the next five years and set up five regional centres of excellence on urban issues which would provide support to states and local bodies on issues of urban governance and growth.

Claiming to have built nine crore toilets under its flagship programme, the manifesto also promised to take the Swachh Bharat Mission to the next level through sustainable solid waste management in every village.

The party also promised to ensure piped water for every household and doubling the number of functional airports by 2024.

The BJP also promised to double the total length of national highways, convert all viable rail tracks to broad gauge, electrify all railway tracks, provide WiFi in all railway stations and high speed optical fibre network in each gram panchayat and complete the dedicated freight corridor by 2022.

It said through the optical fibre network and village level high-speed broadband services, it would provide a range of services including tele-medicine, tele-education and agriculture-related advisories. 

The BJP manifesto called coastal development as the least exploited sector for transportation, tourism and for economic upliftment of coastal communities and promised to exploit this potential fully through speedy completion of the Sagarmala programme. 

"We will double our port capacity in the next five years. We will further encourage integrated development of coastal areas including coastal cities, coastal transport and coastal industrialisation," it said. -IANS