NEW DELHI: At the meeting on Wednesday of Pragati , a mechanism devised by him to speed up implementation by bringing down silos within bureaucracy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi seemed happy when presented with the status report of one particular project.The 289-km Khurda-Bolangir railway line in Odisha was conceived in 1995 and was supposed to provide succour to one of the poorest regions in the country. Yet, it languished for decades until 2015 when it engaged the attention of the PM when he was reviewing the status of projects which had failed to get off the ground much after they were launched.After going through details of the project and seeing that it had progressed at a snail’s pace, Modi made his unhappiness known. “This area is home to some of the poorest and neediest citizens, who got left behind other parts and are in dire need of compassionate governance. We have failed them,” sources in PMO quoted a worried Modi telling officials in 2014.“Work on this project should have been prioritised. If the work had been finished by 2000, the original date of completion, the cost would have been substantially lower and would have helped unlock the economic potential of eastern India,” he lamented.On Wednesday, in sharp contrast, Modi, a stern taskmaster, looked satisfied when the railway ministry shared the details of implementation of the Khurda-Bolangir line with him to show that work was going as per schedule.Sources said the railway ministry shared the progress report on the line and assured that work on it was on track. The chief secretary of Odisha said not much work had taken place on the project for the first 20 years and the process of serious planning began only in 2015, after Modi undertook the first review. Odisha government said that land was being acquired for the project from the Rs 2,000 crore state government provided for after the renewal of interest in the project under NDA government and that the job would be complete in next 6 months.On the question of environmental clearances, sources said the PM noted with satisfaction that the railway ministry and the environment ministry were on the same page.For PMO officials, the progress of the Khurda-Bolangir line is another evidence of the effectiveness of Pragati platform as a tool to speed up implementation of projects which were mothballed for several decades.On Wednesday, the PM took up 11 issues out of which nine were linked to delayed projects worth Rs 24,000 crore and spread over nine states of Odisha, Telangana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Bihar, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh and three Union ministries. These include three from the ministry of railways, five from the ministry of road transport and highways and one from the ministry of petroleum and natural gas.Until Wednesday, the PM has reviewed 269 projects with a total investment of Rs 12.30 lakh crore. The PM has also reviewed the resolution of grievance redressal related to 47 government programmes and schemes across 17 diverse sectors, sources said.