Says will help catch up with China in boosting economy
the goan I network
PANAJI
Prabhu, who was earlier a minister of power, during the first tenure of the NDA government, was delivering a lecture on the “Indian Railways and its progress spearheads the growth of the country” at the International Centre Goa in Dona Paula, cited how China was able to achieve its ‘miraculous growth’ largely based on its investments in infrastructure in Railways.
“When I was power minister and I said that private investment will be highest in the power sector, people laughed at me. Today our growth in power production is largely due to growth in the private sector,” Prabhu said.
“Today the next major investment will come in the transportation sector and in the railways and will help India catch up with China and help to grow India’s economy,” Prabhu said.
“India’s growth will automatically cross 10%,” Prabhu said. Growth for the current financial year is expected to be at 7.1%. Prabhu said that no sooner he took over the Railways, rather than making promises, his only job was on identifying problem areas which he would then proceed to solve.
“Most of them are fully implemented, some are ongoing and others are nearing completion,” Prabhu said.
Prabhu spoke of his plans of introducing WiFi at many stations, doubling of tracks, electrification, newer technologies, introducing new services like that of Tejas as well as other initiatives that he had announced as part of his railways budget.
He blamed lack of investment for decades for the situation of railways no sooner he took over as railways minister.
“The problem with the railways is that we have never invested in them and when we have invested, we have invested in the wrong areas,” Prabhu said adding that he has invested Rs 8.52 lakh crore in the Railways roughly $140 million something which China invests annually in its railways.
“When one looks at China, one sees the output of years of investment and not an overnight miracle. What we need to focus right now is on the input,” Prabhu said.
