"Earlier It Took 8 Days To Reach Some Border Areas": Devendra Fadnavis Jabs Congress

Lavishing praise on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday said the country has seen mega public infrastructure development under his leadership.

Addressing a Namo Yuva Sammelan in Maharashtra's Jalgaon on Tuesday, Mr Fadnavis said, "The government (at the Centre) has given a massive infrastructure boost to rail, airport, and ports across the country. We have seen the new-age, Made-in-India Vande Bharat trains rolling out from across the country."

Also reserving words of appreciation for the efforts undertaken by the Centre to build roads and boost public infrastructure in areas of Leh and Ladakh, bordering China, the deputy CM said, "We can reach some of our border areas in 12 hours now."

"With more roads now built in the far corners of the country, including the border areas, we are much better placed at facing our adversaries--be it Pakistan or any other country," Mr Fadnavis said.

Taking a swipe at the previous Congress government at the Centre, the deputy chief minister said he was informed by top officers in the country's armed forces that major infrastructure work has happened in the border areas under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi.

"Earlier, our military officers would brief the Congress on China's aggressive infrastructure building on China and how they were enabling themselves to plot attacks on us easily. It was said they could mobilise heavy weaponry to the borders very easily and attack us within 24 hours if they so desired. They said if such a situation ever arose, our troops would also have to mobilise combat hardware at short notice and, to that end, the lack of infrastructure was a problem," Mr Fadnavis said.

"Earlier, it took at least eight days to reach some of our border areas," he said, in a further swipe at the previous Congress government at the Centre.

"However, because of the infrastructure development that happened under the leadership of Modi-ji, we can now respond to any misadventures at the border and retaliate," the deputy CM added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)