Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated development projects worth ₹4,700 crore in Chandigarh on July 17, 2026, focusing on healthcare, education, and infrastructure sectors. The projects include major healthcare expansions at local medical institutes with new Neuroscience Center, Mother and Child Center, and Critical Care Hospital Block designed to serve millions of people in the region spanning Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.
In infrastructure development, the Prime Minister inaugurated a six-lane greenfield highway from IT City to Kurali to alleviate airport road congestion and laid the foundation for the 'PR Seven Spur' project to improve regional connectivity. The government has invested over ₹2,500 crore in modernizing Chandigarh's urban landscape through initiatives including Integrated Command and Control Center, Smart Traffic Management, and Digital Governance.
The address highlighted significant healthcare achievements under the current administration, including the establishment of 15 new AIIMS post-2014, hundreds of new medical colleges, and nearly 1.75 lakh Ayushman Arogya Mandirs providing screening and health packages. The e-Sanjeevani telemedicine mission has conducted over 48 crore consultations nationwide, while institutional childbirths now exceed 90% with an 86% reduction in maternal mortality and significant drop in infant mortality rates.
Educational infrastructure received attention with the inauguration of Kurukshetra Boys Hostel at Punjab Engineering College and foundation laying for new research scholar accommodations. The government emphasized Chandigarh's role as an educational, engineering, and medical research hub with recent approval of an MBBS college at the local institute.
The event also featured recognition of sanitation efforts, with retired IPS officer Inderjit Singh Sidhu receiving a Padma award for his grassroots sanitation movement. The government highlighted the Swachh Bharat Mission's achievements in building crores of toilets and eradicating open defecation.