Modi Cabinet Gives Nod To Procure E-Buses, Vishwakarma Yojana, New Railway Projects. Top Points

The Narendra Modi cabinet held a meeting on Wednesday where several projects were approved in the areas of public transport, unorganised sector, information and technology, and the railways. Addressing a press conference after the meeting in the national capital, Union Ministers Anurag Thakur and Ashwini Vaishnaw briefed to the media about the various schemes. In an attempt to give a push to green mobility in the country, the procurement of 10,000 electric buses was approved under the ‘PM e-Bus’ Seva by the cabinet.

PM Vishwakarma Scheme worth Rupees 13,000 crore was also given a green signal for the benefit of unorganised sector and the extension of Digital India scheme was also approved. Seven multi-tracking projects of the railways, with an outlay of Rs 32,500 crore, was also given a nod.

PM e-Bus Seva

• Under this scheme, ten thousand e-buses will be deployed on public-private partnership model in 169 cities.
• Infrastructure in 181 cities will be upgraded under the Green Mobility Initiatives.
• The total cost of the scheme has been estimated at Rs 57,613 crore with Central government supporting to the tune of Rs 20,000 crore.
• Ten years of bus operations will be supported under the scheme.

PM Vishwakarma Scheme

• The approval of this scheme, announced by PM Modi during his Independence Day speech, aims to give benefit to about 30 lakh traditional artisans and craftsmen, including weavers, goldsmiths, blacksmiths, laundry workers, and barbers.
• The craftsmen will be provided a subsidised loan of Rs 1 lakh in the first tranche, and another Rs 2 lakh in the second tranche under this scheme.
• The loans will be provided at a concessional interest rate of 5 per cent.

Extension Of Digital India 

• The cabinet approved the extension of Digital India scheme, at an outlay of Rs 14,903 crore, which was first launched in 2015.
• Skills of around five lakh IT professionals will be rescaled and upscaled under the extension, while over two lakh people will be trained in information security.
• DigiLocker for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises will be introduced as a prerequisite for digital credit model which requires document verification. Vaishnaw told the reporters that intorduction of DigiLocker will facilitate document verification for digital credit model which is expected to be introduced later this year.
• Around 12 crore people will be imparted awareness about cyber security.

Railway Multi-Tracking Projects

•  The cabinet approved seven railway mutli-tracking projects worth Rs 32,500 crore with 100 per cent funding from central government.
• The projects will cover 35 districts in 9 states including Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Telangana, West Bengal, Bihar, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, and Odisha.
• The projects will increase the existing network of Indian Railways by 2,339 kilometres.