KOLLAM: Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened Kollam bypass in the presence of chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and governor P Sathasivam on Tuesday. The inaugural ceremony reflected the political mood in the state to such an extent that the chief minister had to raise his voice and admonish a section of the audience who tried to disrupt his speech by chanting ‘sharana mantras’ in unison.“Some people, it seems, came only to make a noise. It’s better to keep certain decorum while attending a meeting. Don’t think that the meeting is a venue for indulging in such an act,” he said. There were complaints against organizers for not extending an invite to Kollam mayor V Rajendra Babu and CPM MLA from Eravipuram M Noushad whereas Nemom MLA O Rajagopal and MP V Muraleedharan shared the dais with Modi.The Prime Minister – while opening the bypass which had a long, chequered work history – said the prime focus of the NDA government was infrastructure development. The practice of squandering public missing project deadlines was unacceptable, he said. “I was surprised to see that some projects were lagging behind schedule for 20-30 years. When we came to power, we identified 250 such projects. Now, I personally review them with officials concerned every month,” Modi said.Declaring that the ‘last man in queue’ too was Centre’s priority, the Prime Minister said that Union government's efforts to build better infrastructure facilities at a faster pace have paid off.Road and air connectivity has visibly improved and India’s position as a favourite tourism destination has improved considerably. The foreign exchange revenue from tourism sector has recorded a 50% increase, he said. “Not just national highways, rural connectivity too has improved. Rural road connectivity in the country was only 56% when NDA came to power. It has now increased to 90,” he said. Modi said tourism sector has recorded a whopping growth under NDA regime.He also acknowledged the state government’s contributions to the development of Kollam bypass and said Centre and state government would have to work even harder to make life easier for people.Vijayan, in his speech, said what was once perceived as impossible in Kerala has now proved to be possible. He cited the case of GAIL pipeline work as an example. “Had not the flood hit Kerala, GAIL project too would have been inaugurated now. The Prime Minister had once affectionately complained that nothing was happening in Kerala. Then I had promised him that things will change. GAIL pipeline would soon become a reality and it shows that things do really happen here,” he said.Though the bypass has been opened, the political controversy over its inauguration is unlikely to die down soon. Ministers G Sudhakaran and J Mercykutty Amma led a road show on the newlyopened bypass soon after Modi left the venue. The LDF has allegedly accused UDF MP NK Premachandran for arranging PM Modi’s inauguration to ‘snatch the claim over the completion of bypass’.

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