Making World-class Smart Cities In Gujarat

Making World-class Smart Cities In Gujarat

TO MAKE GUJARAT A world-class state, its government is pushing ahead its agenda of making the state a land of opportunities and of inclusive development taking everyone along in its quest. In an exclusive interview with BW Businessworld chairman and editor-in-chief Annurag Batra and Manish Arora, Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani talks about his vision of cities in Gujarat being among the best cities in the world and its government’s initiatives to make it happen. Edited excerpts:

What are your plans for Gujarat for the next five years?

I am glad I shall get a full five-year term to go ahead with the development agenda, where we have made a vision document for these five years. Our first priority is to complete the projects started by Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he was Gujarat’s chief minister. We are focusing on his vision of doubling farmers’ incomes, maximising their agriculture produce and new programmes for insurance and irrigation, etc.

Secondly, we are making sure that farmers get the minimum support price for their produce. We are also concentrating on the whole chain of marketing to cold storage. As Gujarat is a state with a 1,600-km-long coastline, we are concentrating on making the seaway the main mode of transportation. We have also started a RO-RO ferry service. We are focused on more port development from cargo to mass transportation to make sure that there is less burden on roads.

Thirdly, the youth must get employment opportunities. We want to facilitate Gujarat as a land of opportunities. We are working in this direction by ensuring industrial development and foreign direct investments in Gujarat that will ultimately lead to employment generation.