I hope next quarter will take GDP in plus direction: Amit Shah

Gandhinagar: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday said he hoped that the next quarter of the financial year will take the GDP in the plus direction. He was speaking at a virtual public dedication ceremony of two flyovers in Ahmedabad connecting Rajkot and Gandhinagar, built at a cost of around Rs 70 crore.

"Due to the farsightedness, decisions and policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Central government had brought in Rs 20 crore 'Garib Kalyan' package, giving a forward push to the economy. Due to that now we are lagging only six per cent behind the pre-Covid situation. I hope that the next (3 month) quarter will take the GDP in the plus direction," said Amit Shah.

"There is increasing foreign direct investment in the country. A record FII of foreign investment has been registered in November. This is because even in the Covid-19 situation PM Modi utilised the Covid-19 to visualise and bring in large term economic reforms, large term policy reforms and large term industrial policy reforms, which have resulted in the country moving rapidly ahead in development," added Shah.

Shah further said, "Gujarat has been a leader and under the leadership of the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Gujarat has always led the country in infrastructural projects. Whether it be connecting Gujarat to ports, pilgrimage places, industrial township, railways, seashores and every commutable place. Gujarat has been first in the country to provide 24 hours electricity to villages, connecting every port with national highway and state highways, becoming a self reliant state in electricity, record of setting up PHCs, CHCs in smallest radius, setting up giant hospital infrastructural facilities, biggest private ports in the country, largest producer of alternative energy. So in every sector, Gujarat has continued leading the country and this pace has not been dampened even during Covid-19 situation."

"Gujarat has equalled its energy consumption with that to pre-Covid conditions. The GST revenues are also almost up to the pre-Covid and as far as GDP is concerned Gujarat is leading the country," Shah added.

The Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said, "We have started so many projects in Kevadiya, started the RoPax services, Seaplane services and many others and presented the Gujarat development model to the country. Today it has appeared in the news that maximum investment in FDI has come in Gujarat, which is 52 per cent of the country's FDI. Which means that Gujarat is rapidly moving ahead and to cope up with this pace, we are increasing infrastructure in roads, seaways, airways and looking at the coming 30 to 40 years we are designing infrastructure."

The two flyovers, which were publicly dedicated, are the Sindhu Bhavan junction and Sanand injunction, a part of a 44 kilometre stretch on which a total of 10 flyovers have been planned to convert it into a fast track lane.

Along this stretch, a four kilometre elevated corridor has also been designed, which is expected to reduce the traffic. According to the state government, two lakh vehicles are commuting on the road connecting Rajkot and Saurashtra to the National highway, connecting Gujarat with other states.