Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday inaugurated and laid the foundation stone for development projects worth more than Rs 500 billion across sectors including telecommunications, railways, higher education, healthcare, skill development and rural housing.

He announced Rs 110 billion expansion projects across eight IITs—Tirupati, Palakkad, Bhilai, Jammu, Dharwad, Jodhpur, Patna and Indore—adding 12,000 seats over the next four years. A rail flyover between Sambalpur City and Sarala will also be built at a cost of Rs 2.7 billion, alongside a semiconductor and electronic system design and manufacturing (ESDM) park in collaboration with IIT-Bhubaneswar.

Modi launched the MERITE (Multidisciplinary Education and Research Improvement in Technical Education) scheme to enhance quality, equity and research in 275 state engineering and polytechnic institutes. He also unveiled Odisha Skill Development Project Phase-II, with Rs 19.8 billion to establish world skill centres in Sambalpur and Berhampur, covering sectors such as agritech, renewable energy, retail, marine and hospitality.

Five ITIs will be upgraded into ‘Utkarsh ITIs’, 25 into Centres of Excellence, and a new Precision Engineering Building will provide advanced training. To improve digital education, Wi-Fi facilities costing Rs 900 million were rolled out across 130 higher education institutions, benefiting over 250,000 students.

In healthcare, the PM unveiled plans to upgrade MKCG Medical College in Berhampur and VIMSAR in Sambalpur into world-class super-speciality hospitals at a cost of Rs 30 billion, adding trauma care units, maternal and child health services, dental colleges, and expanded academic infrastructure.

On railways, Modi flagged off the Amrit Bharat Express between Berhampur and Udhna (Surat), while dedicating the doubling of the 34-km Koraput–Baiguda line and the 82-km Manabar–Koraput–Gorapur section, together built at Rs 14 billion.

In telecom, he commissioned 97,500 4G towers using BSNL’s indigenous technology, completed at a cost of Rs 370 billion. For rural housing, 50,000 beneficiaries received sanction orders under the Antyodaya Gruha Yojana, which provides pucca homes and financial aid to vulnerable families including widows, persons with disabilities, terminally ill patients and disaster victims.

This was Modi’s sixth visit to Odisha since the BJP assumed power in the state in June 2024.