PM Modi launches key projects in Assam, West Bengal

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 7 launched ‘Asom Mala’, which is aimed at helping improve the state highways and major district roads network in Assam.

• ‘Asom Mala’, with an outlay of Rs 8,210 crore, will provide quality inter-linkage roads between the national highways and the rural roads network as well as facilitate seamless multi-modal transportation. It will interconnect economic growth centres with transportation corridors and improve inter-state connectivity.

• The programme is unique for its emphasis on effective maintenance through continuous field data collection and its linkage with the road asset management system.

• The prime minister also laid the foundation stone of two medical colleges and hospitals, which are being set up in Biswanath and Charaideo at a total estimated project cost of over Rs 1,100 crore. Each hospital will have a capacity of 500 beds and 100 MBBS seats.

• The increase in the number of medical colleges and hospitals will not only mitigate the shortage of doctors in the state but also make Assam a hub for tertiary care and medical education for the entire northeast region.

Oil and gas projects in West Bengal

• PM Modi dedicated to the nation several infrastructure projects in the oil and gas sector in Haldia.

• It includes the 348-km Dobhi-Durgapur natural gas pipeline built by government-owned GAIL.

• The 348-km pipeline from Dobhi in Bihar to Durgapur in West Bengal is part of the Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga project to take environment-friendly natural gas to India’s eastern parts.

• The massive project connects the end point of legacy gas pipelines at Jagdishpur in Uttar Pradesh to eastern states of Bihar, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha.

• It marks an important milestone towards achieving ‘one nation, one gas grid’ project of the government.

• Constructed at an investment of about Rs 2,400 crore, the pipeline will help revival of HURL Sindri (Jharkhand) fertilizer plant and in supplying gas to Matix Fertilizer Plant in Durgapur (West Bengal).

• It will cater to the gas demand of industrial, commercial and automobile sectors, and the city gas distribution across all major towns in the state.

• Modi inaugurated an LPG import terminal built by the state-run Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) that has been constructed at an investment of around Rs 1,100 crore and has a capacity of 1 million metric tonne per annum. It will cater to the growing requirement of LPG in West Bengal and other states in eastern and north-eastern India.

• Modi also laid the foundation stone of the second Catalytic Iso-dewaxing unit of the Haldia refinery of the Indian Oil Corporation. Once commissioned, it is expected to result in a saving of about $185 million in foreign exchange.

• Another project inaugurated by the PM is a four-lane ROB-cum-flyover at Ranichak in Haldia on NH 41. It has been built at the cost of Rs 190 crore.

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