When we work as one, we can truly transform India

I come from Mumbai. You are aware that I have given work in Mumbai to make foot over-bridges even to the army where I found that there was a pressing urgency, a catastrophe had happened in Mumbai. I didn’t wait for the railway to work in that normal fashion. I brought in the army to do that. And for your information, I am already twice gone for inspection of the work of the army wherever we are making these foot over-bridges.

And I didn’t give it to the army without, senselessly or I didn’t give it to the army because my railway officials can’t do it. I gave it to the army because I thought there was a pressing need, an urgency which was going beyond the normal speed of work. And what did I do? I asked all my zones to send their engineers to see how they are doing this work fast. Because, after all, army is working on very adverse circumstances on the borders, they have a certain expertise.

And I got people from all zones come in to see that work, see and learn how to do it faster. And you will be happy to know, this competitive spirit that this generated has literally speeded up the work of the railway so much that my general managers of western railway and central railway completed some foot over-bridges in less time than the army did in Mumbai.

See, there is a genuine competition how you get a benefit. And they forced the Chief Minister to inaugurate it on 26th January, because they wanted that inauguration to happen even before the army foot over-bridges are done.

That is the thinking of this government, how to bring speed, how to bring scale and how to execute projects skillfully. In fact, one of these suggestions was that Belagavi has a lot of industry, and I am delighted to hear about innovations that all of you have done, the hydraulics, the equipment for faster maintenance, faster revival of accident… trains.. God forbid, there should not be any accident at any time, but should there be one how we can do it faster.

I am delighted to hear about the Make in India stories. And you will be happy to know, a colleague, Shri Mandaviya from Gujarat recently had Industry Railway Participation workshop in Rajkot, where also there is a lot of engineering industry. So, I will be happy if you would like to conduct the workshop where RDSO, railway officials and industry can work together to showcase your strengths and we can see how you can bring in more technology to our working and help us in our work.

Ultimately, if we have to develop this nation, it can only happen in a public-private partnership, when you and we work together as one. After all, it is not my railway as somebody commented. I am not taking it in the wrong sense; somebody said ‘your railway’. It’s not ‘my railway’. I am only a temporary phenomena over here. You all are permanent (inaudible) on railway. It is your railway. It is our railway. And when we work together as one, we can truly transform India.

After all, when Prime Minister talks of Swacchta, he cannot do Swacchta sitting in Delhi. It will have to happen in the regional areas, each one of you have to participate in the smart city project, in the Swaccha Bharat Abhiyan. If we don’t throw the garbage on the street, then only India can become clean. We can’t say we will throw garbage, but it’s somebody else’s responsibility to make it clean. That is how the participative government…

And I would urge all of you, whoever have given products to offer to the railways, please start supplying to the railways. Now, you won’t have to run behind railways for payments. All those who are suppliers to railways, kindly note, in the next week or so we have to come out with a notification, you can actually ask railways to give you a letter of credit, and against that your bank will lend you money at 9 per cent, 10 per cent.

While all the issues that you mentioned about metro railway pushing the Make in India, I am sure you are all aware this is the first time and the first government of India which has said that if any Indian manufacturer makes a product, even if the price of some foreign company will be less, he has an opportunity to match that and he will be given preference in the order. That’s the government of India policy now. So, anybody who makes products which are part of a global tender, but if he makes in India, he will have a right to match the price and provide the product made in India. That policy, Make in India Policy, for the first time has been introduced by our government.

Also, we have brought in (inaudible), so if any country and we have a neighboring country which doesn’t allow Indians to supply to them, but wants to supply all their products in India. Now, we are being very careful. We are saying in reciprocity, if they don’t allow our companies to sell in their country, we will not allow their companies to come and sell here. If you find any product where your competition is unfair, please let us know, we will not allow those companies to participate. If they don’t allow you to sell in their country, their companies will also not be allowed to sell in India. That is the policy of Mr Modi’s government.

Somebody spoke about animal corridors. I appreciate the point. There are animal corridors all across the country, and wherever there are defined corridors we have speed restrictions. We are also trying to create boundary wall. Even in Belagavi, kindly see which are the critical areas where we have to make boundary walls. You will be happy to know, more than Rs 5000 crores we have sanctioned for boundary walls alone all over the country, in the city areas.

And, of course, Karnataka has a serious problem of farmer suicides also, and which is why I said for sugarcane industry, for example, we will try and support with the new government is elected, we are going to see that all sugarcane farmers get their payment within 14 days. And if there is any backlog of the past, we will try and ensure that within 4 months all that backlog is cleared like we did in Uttar Pradesh.

Edited excerpts from Railway Minister Piyush Goyal’s speech at Belagavi (Belgaum) to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry on the Budget 2018-19, February 11