PM Modi Cites World Bank Data on 500M Escaping Poverty, Flags Off Pune Metro
Asserting that India has definitively transitioned from decades of empty political slogans to grassroots delivery, Prime Minister Narendra Modi cited a World Bank report on Tuesday confirming that nearly 500 million citizens have been lifted out of extreme poverty across the country over the last 10 to 12 years. Addressing the public via video conferencing during the inauguration of Pune Metro's 23-kilometer-long Pink Line, the Prime Minister highlighted that rapid poverty alleviation and nationwide economic expansion are fundamentally interconnected. Pointing to the saturation of essential welfare schemes—including pucca housing, individualized sanitation facilities, piped tap water connections, and subsidized cooking gas—Modi explained that restoring the dignity of underprivileged families has provided the social foundation necessary for India to emerge as the world’s fastest-growing major economy and advance decisively toward its Viksit Bharat 2047 milestones.
Hinjewadi IT Hub Connected: Pune Gets ₹8,300-Crore All-Women Operated Pink Line & ₹13,500-Cr Phase 2
Urban transportation in Maharashtra received a major upgrade with the commercial commissioning of the Pune Metro Pink Line, constructed at an investment exceeding ₹8,300 crore. Stretching across 23 kilometers, the new transit line provides high-capacity, congestion-free transit linking the major information technology corridor of Hinjewadi directly to the District Court interchange station in the heart of Pune. Setting a benchmark for gender empowerment in urban transit engineering, the entire operational fleet and station management of the Pink Line will be spearheaded by women professionals. Expanding on this urban transit blueprint, Prime Minister Modi also laid the foundation stone for the second phase of the Pune Metro network, which entails a planned capital layout of approximately ₹13,500 crore to construct four interconnected corridors—Lines 2A, 2B, 4, and 4A—to integrate Pune’s rapidly expanding suburban and industrial belts into a unified transit network.
India’s Metro Grid Jumps to 1,200 Km as PM Assures Support for Drought-Hit Farmers
Placing Pune’s transit additions in national perspective, the Prime Minister highlighted the rapid physical transformation of India’s rapid transit sector over the past decade under the NDA government. In 2014, the country possessed an operational metro footprint of just 248 kilometers restricted to five major cities, which has since quadrupled to nearly 1,200 kilometers operating seamlessly across 26 urban agglomerations. With more than 10 million commuters utilizing metro systems daily, India’s urban transit grid now ranks among the top three largest metro networks in the world. Shifting focus to agricultural communities facing environmental hardship, the Prime Minister addressed agrarian distress across drought-impacted regions of Maharashtra, assuring cultivators of unconditional central backing and expedited direct income support through the PM-KISAN scheme. He urged the nation to stand in solidarity with farming families during the festive season, calling on citizens to ensure that the warmth and celebrations of Diwali reach every rural household facing agricultural distress.
