Kolkata, Mar 2 (IANS): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said that West Bengal despite having lots of potential, lagged behind since the Independence and his government in the last 10 years has continuosly been trying to make up for that.

“Bengal’s achievement as written in history slowed down substantially after Independence. Despite lots of potential, the state progressed backward since Independence. However, during the last 10 years I have tried by best to make up for that and that is why my government has focused on the railways network development in the state,” the Prime Minister said while inaugurating various central projects worth Rs 15,000 crore at Krishnanagar in the Nadia district of West Bengal on Saturday morning.

Emphasising that West Bengal is an important state in the eastern part of the country, PM Modi said that keeping that in mind he and his government are focusing on the development of rail, road and air connectivity in the state.”

Stressing that power connectivity is an important component for development of any region, the Prime Minister said that he wants West Bengal to become self-reliant in power connectivity and hence his government is taking all possible measures to achieve that.

"On Friday, I inaugurated central projects worth over Rs 7,000 crore at a programme at Arambagh in Hooghly district. Today I inaugurated projects worth over Rs 15,000 crore. This means that in the last two days, a total of over Rs 22,000 crore worth of projects have been inaugurated. These projects will open new avenues of income generation for the youths,” the Prime Minister added.

PM Modi is also scheduled to address a political rally organised by the state unit of BJP in West Bengal on Saturday.