Since 2014, Govt Institutionalised Delivery, Accountability: Modi

Chairing the 50th meeting of PRAGATI, the ICT-enabled, multi-modal platform for Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation, the Prime Minister said projects that were started earlier but left incomplete or forgotten had been revived and completed in the national interest.

During the meeting, the Prime Minister reviewed five critical infrastructure projects spanning the road, railways, power, water resources and coal sectors. These projects are spread across five States and involve a cumulative investment of over ₹40,000 crore.

Reviewing the implementation of the PM SHRI scheme, the Prime Minister stressed that it should emerge as a national benchmark for holistic and future-ready school education. He said implementation must be outcome-oriented rather than infrastructure-centric, and asked Chief Secretaries to closely monitor PM SHRI schools. He also suggested that senior government officers undertake field visits to assess their performance.

Recalling the origins of the approach, Modi said that as Chief Minister of Gujarat he had launched the technology-enabled SWAGAT platform to resolve public grievances through transparency and time-bound action. Building on that experience, PRAGATI was introduced at the national level to bring large projects, major programmes and grievance redressal onto a single platform for review, resolution and follow-up.

The Prime Minister noted that over the years, the PRAGATI ecosystem has helped accelerate projects worth more than ₹85 lakh crore and supported large-scale implementation of welfare programmes. Since 2014, 377 projects have been reviewed under PRAGATI, and 2,958 of the 3,162 identified issues, around 94 per cent, have been resolved, significantly reducing delays, cost overruns and coordination gaps.

Several long-pending projects were unlocked after being taken up under PRAGATI, including the Bogibeel rail-cum-road bridge in Assam, the Jammu-Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla rail link, the Navi Mumbai International Airport, the modernisation of the Bhilai Steel Plant, and the Gadarwara and LARA super thermal power projects. These outcomes, the Prime Minister said, demonstrate the impact of sustained high-level monitoring and inter-governmental coordination.

He observed that projects often fail not due to lack of intent but because of poor coordination and silo-based functioning. PRAGATI, he said, addresses this by bringing all stakeholders onto a single platform aligned to shared outcomes. Describing PRAGATI as an effective model of cooperative federalism, the Prime Minister said it enables the Centre and States to function as one team. He added that around 500 Union Secretaries and state Chief Secretaries have participated in PRAGATI meetings so far.