Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday called for continuous reforms across all stages of infrastructure project execution during the 53rd PRAGATI meeting. He asked ministries and state governments to adopt an end-to-end approach and a proactive work culture to ensure timely delivery. The meeting reviewed six key infrastructure projects in the railway, road and power sectors across nine states with a cumulative investment of Rs 300 billion (Rs 300 bn). Officials assessed projects on timelines, inter-agency coordination and resolution of pending issues.

He said infrastructure projects should be viewed as an integrated whole rather than as individual sections, stretches or packages and that progress in individual components must result in timely completion and operationalisation of the entire project. The prime minister warned that delays increase project costs and postpone benefits intended for citizens, businesses and the wider economy. He sought greater ownership at every level of implementation and proactive intervention to address bottlenecks.

During a review of AgriStack under the Digital Agriculture Mission he urged greater use of emerging technologies including artificial intelligence to unlock the value of agricultural data. He recommended leveraging the digital ecosystem across the agricultural value chain from input planning to processing to enable better targeting and data driven decision making. He also examined cases of cyber fraud including incidents described as digital arrest and called for sustained public awareness campaigns, training and cyber safety education.

He emphasised targeted outreach to senior citizens, youth and other vulnerable groups and regular capacity building of personnel to tackle emerging fraud methods. The prime minister asked ministries and states to examine the feasibility of common utility corridors while planning major transport and infrastructure projects, saying integrated planning could improve efficiency and reduce future disruptions. He stressed that speed of execution must go hand in hand with quality and urged greater use of modern technologies and stronger quality assurance and supervision mechanisms at every stage.