NDA govt creating real 'adarsh' society: Modi

Taking a jibe at the Congress and NCP over the Adarsh scam during their rule in Maharashtra, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Tuesday said his government is creating an ideal society through its public housing schemes.

The erstwhile Congress-NCP government was rocked by the Adarsh housing society scam which related to alleged irregularities in construction of a high-rise in south Mumbai.

Speaking at an event to lay the foundation stone for the Maharashtra government's Rs 18,000 crore mass housing scheme, Modi said the NDA government was working towards creating a broader, "adarsh" (ideal) society.

"...this is not the Adarsh society which was the topic of discussion under the old government. We are creating the real adarsh society where a simple family's aspirations are getting realised," he said, in the speech that comes months ahead of the general elections.

Modi said the NDA government was different from the previous UPA government in "sanskaar, sarokar and raftaar" (values, behaviour and pace), when it came to infrastructure projects.

He claimed the NDA government has built 1.25 crore homes for the poor and marginalised sections of the society in the last four years, as against 25.5 lakh constructed under the UPA administration from 2010 to 2014.

The PM also took potshots at the slow pace of works on metro projects under the previous government, saying it took them eight years to build the financial capital's first metro line from Ghatkopar to Versova in suburban Mumbai.

As against that, the BJP-led government was creating a network of metro lines spread over 275 km that will enable Mumbai residents to have a smooth ride while criss-crossing the entire megapolis by 2024, he said.

He listed a slew of schemes launched by his government for the poor, marginalised and also the middle class.

In this regard, he highlighted the subsidy for LED bulbs which has helped reduce electricity bills, the cooking gas replacement scheme and also having a regulator for the realty sector.

Modi was speaking at an event in Kalyan town in the neighbouring Thane district where he laid the foundation stone for mass transport and housing projects entailing an investment of over Rs 33,000 crore.

He launched works on the ambitious Thane-Bhiwandi- Kalyan metro-5 and Dahisar-Mira Bhayander metro-9 in the suburb, which will see investments of over Rs 15,000 crore.

The function also saw the launch of Navi Mumbai's town planning authority City and Industrial Development Corporation's (Cidco) mass housing scheme worth Rs 18,000 crore, which offers around 89,771 affordable homes under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY).

The Rs 8,416-crore 24.9-km long Thane-Bhiwandi-Kalyan metro-5 corridor is expected to carry around 2.29 lakh commuters daily in 2021, with the entire system designed for six-coach trains. The corridor will have 17 stations.

The 10.3-km elevated Dahisar-Mira Bhayander metro-9 corridor, comprising eight stations, is expected to be completed by 2022, and the cost of the project is estimated at Rs 6,607 crore.

Both the projects are being executed by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA).