- 2,800-km Dedicated Freight Corridor completed, powering a faster and more efficient logistics ecosystem
- 430-plus freight trains daily slash transit times, cut costs and open faster market access for farmers
- Vadodara emerges as a manufacturing powerhouse from C-295 aircraft to rail coaches and modern industry
- “From chip to ship”: India accelerates self-reliance across solar, nuclear, critical minerals and rare earths
- Free online coaching and AI skills push to equip youth for the jobs and industries of tomorrow
- Modi calls India’s youth power unprecedented and urges nation to keep Viksit Bharat 2047 as the supreme goal
NE NEWS SERVICE
VADODARA, SEPT 8
From freight corridors to fighter-sized ambitions, from solar rooftops to artificial intelligence, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday painted Vadodara as a microcosm of an India racing towards its developed-nation destiny—and issued a clarion call to keep Viksit Bharat 2047 above every other national goal.
Addressing the ‘Namo for Viksit Bharat’ programme at Maharaja Sayajirao University in Vadodara, Modi said India was witnessing an unprecedented period of transformation driven by infrastructure, manufacturing, technology, energy and the rising power of its youth.
“We must make India developed.”
The Prime Minister linked the completion of the more than 2,800-km Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) with his vision of a faster, more connected and more competitive India, describing the project as a landmark achievement for the 21st century.
He said the Eastern and Western Dedicated Freight Corridors were emerging as the foundation of India’s trade and commerce and described the DFC as “the lifeline of rapidly developing India.”
Gati Shakti turns infrastructure into an economic force
Modi said smooth and high-speed connectivity was indispensable for a developed India and placed the completion of the 2,800-km DFC in the broader framework of the Gati Shakti vision.
The Prime Minister recalled that the DFC idea originated in 2004 and a special company was created in 2006, but claimed that not even a kilometre of the corridor had been completed in the seven–eight years before 2014.
He said his government moved to accelerate the project after 2014 and ultimately completed the entire 2,800-km corridor.
“Today, the 2,800-kilometer corridor has been completed. And today the Eastern and Western Dedicated Freight Corridors are becoming the main foundation of the country’s trade and commerce.”
The infrastructure push, he said, was not merely about laying tracks but about transforming the economics of moving people and goods.
More than 430 freight trains operate every day on the Eastern and Western corridors. A freight train that earlier took around six-and-a-half hours to cover 100 km can now complete the same distance in less than half that time, while freight movement that could take around 30 hours by truck can be completed in 10–12 hours on the DFC, he said.
“Investment was made on one track, and the benefits have been many.”
Faster freight puts farmers closer to markets
The Prime Minister stressed that the benefits of the freight corridor extend well beyond the logistics industry.
He said agricultural produce from eastern and western India—including flowers, vegetables and fruits with limited shelf lives—can now reach mandis and consumers more rapidly.
“This has greatly benefited farmers.”
Modi also cited the recent operation of a double-stack container freight train between JNPT Mumbai and Vadodara, saying one such train could transport goods equivalent to more than 250 trucks in a single trip.
He argued that the shift towards dedicated freight rail would enable large volumes of goods to move rapidly across the country while reducing fuel consumption, freight costs and environmental impact.
The wider rail and connectivity push is also opening access to previously underserved areas, he said, including tribal regions of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.
New trains launched as part of the programme are expected to improve connectivity for people in Vadodara, Chhota Udaipur and Alirajpur.
Infrastructure spending becomes an engine for jobs
Modi presented infrastructure not simply as a connectivity programme but as an employment multiplier.
Roads, railways, metros, airports, gas pipelines and housing projects create employment during construction, he said, while the infrastructure itself attracts industries and businesses that generate additional jobs.
He pointed to the railway budget of more than ₹2.75 lakh crore this year, describing railway modernisation as a major source of employment.
“The expenditure on railway modernization is creating thousands upon thousands of new jobs.”
The Prime Minister said better connectivity creates an economic ecosystem in which industries, businesses and services can emerge around new roads, rail lines, ports, airports and pipelines.
Vadodara’s manufacturing story takes flight
Turning to manufacturing, Modi said Vadodara had demonstrated for decades how education, skills and industry could work together.
He traced the city’s industrial evolution from textiles and tiles to oil and petrochemicals and later to a large MSME ecosystem.
The city’s manufacturing profile, he said, has now entered a new era with the production of the C-295 military transport aircraft.
“The C-295 aircraft’s first flight has already been seen in the skies here.”
Modi congratulated Vadodara for achieving the distinction and positioned the city as an important symbol of India’s expanding manufacturing capabilities.
He also highlighted the rapid growth of India’s railway manufacturing sector, saying nearly 50,000 modern railway coaches had been manufactured since 2014, along with nearly 2.5 lakh freight wagons added to Indian Railways.
“India is now writing a new saga of manufacturing – from chip to ship.”
The phrase captured the Prime Minister’s larger message: India’s manufacturing ambition is increasingly centred on building complete domestic value chains rather than relying on imported components.
Energy security and self-reliance power the next leap
Modi said the manufacturing push was closely linked with India’s energy security and technological self-reliance.
He cited the expansion of domestic solar manufacturing, including PV modules and related hardware, as an example of the changing industrial landscape.
He said India had developed more than 200 GW of solar manufacturing capacity, while the PM Surya Ghar scheme was expanding rooftop solar adoption.
According to the Prime Minister, around 55 lakh families have installed rooftop solar plants under the scheme, including approximately 11 lakh families in Gujarat.
He said these households were not merely consumers of electricity but increasingly producers, while the ecosystem was generating employment in manufacturing, installation and servicing.
Looking ahead, Modi said modern industries—including semiconductor manufacturing, data centres and AI-linked industries—would increasingly depend on a robust electricity ecosystem.
India, therefore, must strengthen solar, wind, hydro and nuclear energy while securing access to uranium, critical minerals and rare earths.
“All this effort is being made day and night to secure the future of the country’s youth – for your future.”
Youth, skills and AI placed at heart of Viksit Bharat
The Prime Minister said the changing global economy required a corresponding transformation in education and skills.
Degrees alone, he said, would no longer be sufficient as the world increasingly values practical and continuously upgraded skills.
“It has become a major need that youth should have skills, and those skills should be upgraded from time to time.”
He said the government was reshaping education, teaching and training institutions to meet this changing requirement.
Modi also announced a push for free online coaching for competitive examinations, aimed at reducing the financial burden on middle-class and poorer families.
“For our youth who are preparing, the government itself will take care of their coaching.”
AI skills, he said, would be equally important—not only for IT professionals but also for agriculture, healthcare, manufacturing, robotics and entrepreneurship.
“We want our young generation to be prepared for AI.”
The government, he said, would launch a major campaign to equip young Indians with AI capabilities that could be applied across sectors.
“This time will not return”: Modi’s Viksit Bharat call
Modi described the present period as an unprecedented era of India’s youth power and warned that the opportunity must not be allowed to pass.
“This period of India is unprecedented. This is the era of the rise of India’s youth power. This time will not return again in India’s life.”
He urged citizens to keep the goal of a developed India by 2047 at the centre of national effort.
“Therefore, we must keep the goal of a developed India in 2047 as supreme. We must make India developed.”
The Prime Minister also praised Vadodara residents for their cleanliness campaign ahead of Ganeshotsav and Navratri and urged citizens to sustain the effort by taking personal responsibility for keeping the city clean.
The programme, attended by Gujarat Governor Acharya Devvrat, Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, Deputy Chief Minister Harsh Sanghavi, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, Vadodara MP and other public representatives, thus became a showcase of the government’s development narrative—where infrastructure is expected to drive industry, industry to create jobs, technology to empower youth and all four to propel India towards Viksit Bharat 2047.
