Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday claimed that there were conspiracies to defame Gujarat and stop investments, but his home state progressed with massive investments flowing in for industrial development, especially in Kutch, which was devastated in the 2001 earthquake.
“Kutch has not only risen (from the ruins), but has given a new momentum of development to entire Gujarat. There was a time when Gujarat was facing one crisis after another,” Modi said, while addressing a rally in Bhuj in Kutch district on the second day of his two-day visit to the state. “While Gujarat was dealing with natural disasters, an era of conspiracies started to defame it in the country and the world. These conspiracies were hatched one after the other to block the investment.”
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled Gujarat will go to assembly elections later this year.
On Sunday, the Prime Minister laid the foundation stone for projects worth ₹4,400 crore and inaugurated ‘Smriti Van’, a memorial built across 470 acres on the outskirts of Bhuj town to celebrate the spirit of resilience shown by the people after the devastating earthquake in 2001.
Around 13,000 people died in the 6.9 magnitude earthquake with its epicentre in Bhuj on January 26, 2001.
“Pushing behind every conspiracy, Gujarat chose a new path of industrial development by introducing a new industrial policy. Kutch stood to benefit a lot from these investments,” Modi said, highlighting that Kutch today houses some of the world’s largest cement and textile plants and is also home to Asia’s first special economic zone. Kandla and Mundra ports in Kutch handle 30% of the country’s sea cargo and 30% of India’s salt is produced here, he added.
“Lakhs of crores of rupees have been invested for the industrial development of Kutch.”
Gujarat became the first state in the country to enact the Disaster Management Act, he said.
“After drawing inspiration from this Act, a similar law was made for the whole country. This Act helped every government in the country during the Covid-19 pandemic,” the PM added.
Modi also said he can visualise India would be a developed nation by 2047, despite several deficiencies at present. “What we resolve today, we will surely realise in 2047.”
Besides the ‘Smriti Van’, Modi also inaugurated “Veer Balak Smarak”, a memorial built near Anjar town in Kutch as a tribute to 185 schoolchildren and 20 teachers who were killed in the earthquake during the Republic Day parade in 2001.
The ‘Smriti Van’ is at par with memorials like the one in memory of 9/11 victims in New York and Hiroshima Peace Memorial in Japan, Modi said.
“I remember when the earthquake struck, I reached here (Kutch) on the second day. I was not the chief minister back then but a simple party worker… Later when I became the CM (in October 2001), this experience helped me a lot,” he said, recalling the devastation of the earthquake.
Among the projects inaugurated by the PM in Bhuj includes the Kachchh Branch Canal of Sardar Sarovar Project — hailed as the country’s largest irrigation project with over 60,000 km of canal network. A part of the canal was inaugurated by the PM in 2017 while the remaining part was inaugurated on Sunday.
Modi also addressed a programme at Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar, marking the commemoration of 40 years of Suzuki group in India. On the occasion, O Suzuki, former president of Suzuki Motor Corporation, T Suzuki, the president of the corporation, and RC Bhargava, the chairman of Maruti-Suzuki, were also present.
Recalling the arrival of Suzuki in Gujarat 13 years ago, Modi said: “I am happy that Gujarat kept its promise with Suzuki and Suzuki also kept Gujarat’s wishes with the same dignity.”
“Gujarat has emerged as a top automotive manufacturing hub in the world,” he said.
Modi laid the foundation stones of two key projects of the Suzuki group in India — the Suzuki Motor Gujarat Electric Vehicle Battery Manufacturing Facility at Hansalpur and Maruti Suzuki’s upcoming vehicle manufacturing facility at Kharkhoda in Haryana.
The Suzuki Motor Gujarat Electric Vehicle Battery Manufacturing Facility at Hansalpur will be set up with an investment of around ₹7,300 crore to manufacture advance chemistry cell batteries for electric vehicles (EVs). The vehicle manufacturing facility in Haryana will have the potential to manufacture one million passenger vehicles per year, making it one of the largest manufacturing facilities in the segment at a single site in the world. The first phase of the project will be set up with an investment of over ₹11,000 crore.
The Prime Minister said India has announced in COP-26 (Glasgow climate summit) that it will achieve 50% of its installed electrical capacity from non-fossil sources by 2030. “We have set a ‘Net Zero’ target for 2070,” he said while praising Maruti Suzuki for working on areas like biofuel, ethanol blending and hybrid EVs.
The state Congress also alleged that around 2,400 state transport buses were used by the Gujarat government to gather crowds for the PM’s events on Sunday. “It’s a waste of public money,” claimed Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi.
