Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday inaugurated state of the art metro coach, the first manufactured under ‘Make in India’ programme in Maharashtra’s Mumbai.
Accompanied by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Mumbai Metro officials, the Prime Minister took a tour of the new coach.
The coach, the first in the list of 500 to be delivered to the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation, has been built by Bharat Earth Movers (BEML) at its Bengaluru facility in flat 75 days.
PM Modi also laid the foundation for three metro lines, which will be built at an investment of Rs 19,000 crore, and a part of the 337-km metro rail network for Mumbai. The three corridors are 9.2km-long Gaimukh to Shivaji Chowk (Mira Road) Metro-10 corridor, 12.7km-long Wadala to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus Metro-11 corridor and 20.7km-long Kalyan to Taloja Metro-12 corridor.
He also laid the foundation stone for a Metro Bhavan, a 32-storey centre, which will operate and control 14 metro lines spread over 340 km.
The Metro Bhavan, to be built at a cost of around Rs 13 crore, will be spread over 1.14 lakh sq metres in the lush green Aarey Colony, Goregaon. It has attracted stiff opposition from Mumbaikars, environmentalists and celebrities who fear huge loss of green cover due to the project.
This is Modi’s first public engagement after an overnight stay at the ISRO Centre in Bengaluru.
PM Modi, along with students from across the country, had gathered to witness the landing of Chandrayaan-2 lander on the surface of the moon.
However, in a major setback for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), communications between India’s moon lander Vikram and the orbiter got snapped as the former was only 2.1 km away from its designated landing spot on the moon’s South Pole.
As a pall of gloom descended over the ISRO centre, the PM asked the scientists to be “courageous and not lose hope”.
Addressing the inauguration ceremony of the metro lines, the PM said, “I have been inspired by ISRO scientists, the kind of dedication they showed, their hard work and how they worked day and night. We can learn from them”.
“There are three kinds of people – people who never start even to try in the fear of failure, people who run away from a problem at the sight of first hurdle and people who start then keep at it until they achieve it. The people at ISRO are the kinds who never stop trying,” PM Modi said.
“I have heard of Mumbai spirit. I saw the spirit of ISRO scientists today,” he added.
On the metro network in Mumbai, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the project will not only benefit the commuters but also provide job opportunities to many.
“The Mumbai metro project will not only help to ease out commute for passengers but will also be a source of employment for a number of people as coaches of the new metro train will be made in India,” Modi said.
The Prime Minister further urged the residents of Mumbai to opt for plastic-free Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations.
“We must resolve to avoid materials like plastic that give way to water pollution during Ganpati visarjan,” Modi said.
Modi on Saturday started his Maharashtra visit with an auspicious ‘darshan’ of Lord Ganesha installed at the 96-year old Lokmanya Seva Sangh (LSS) in suburban Vile Parle in Mumbai.
Later in the day, the PM will be travelling to Aurangabad in the backward Marathwada region to inaugurate the 10,000-acre Aurangabad Industrial City (AURIC) and also address women self help groups.
Modi was also scheduled to visit Nagpur for metro projects, but the same had to be postponed at the last moment due to heavy rain forecast. He was to lay the foundation stone for a Metro coach factory in Nagpur and a Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation (MMRCL) project to connect Nagpur with Wardha, Ramtek and Bhandara.
PM Modi, who arrived in Mumbai earlier in the day, was received by Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and CM Devendra Fadnavis.
The ‘Make in India’ programme, covering 25 sectors of the economy, was launched by the Government of India on 25 September 2014 to encourage companies to manufacture their products in India and enthuse with dedicated investments into manufacturing.