Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has charted an ambitious vision for transforming India’s roads, highways, and transportation in the coming years. Speaking at the 2024 ET NOW GBS in Delhi, Gadkari highlighted how his Ministry has delivered on over 90% of highway construction projects despite perennial hurdles.
Elaborating further, the minister stated “The credit goes entirely to my team including the engineers, contractors, and officers who are toiling relentlessly. We believe in harnessing collective efforts and working together.”
Hailed as the “rockstar” minister, Gadkari made grand promises ahead of the polls, stating how he is “90%, not a politician” and that he mostly does seva for the commoners.
Some mammoth targets that Gadkari has set for 2024 include reducing Mumbai-Delhi travel times to 12 hours through new expressways. He also envisions building a dedicated electric highway between India’s political and financial capitals, complete with facilities like charging stations. On the manufacturing front, Gadkari aims to make India the global leader in automobile production within the next 5 years.
The minister also elaborated on his grand plans to boost alternative energy fuels like ethanol, methanol, and biodiesel among others. “The idea is to support our farmers financially while reducing imports and pollution. Our farmers can now become Urjadata (electricity provider) and Pradushan Muktadata (provider of pollution-free fuels) besides Annadata,” he stated.
Some ongoing projects highlighted by Gadkari include a massive foodgrains-to-ethanol plant in Haryana’s Panipat district. Bamboo is also being used to produce ethanol in Assam’s Numaligarh region while Punjab is leveraging waste rice biomass to generate bio-CNG.
However, Gadkari expressed dismay over the persisting menace of road accidents that claim almost 1.5 lakh innocent lives annually. “We desperately need to change attitudes and promote safety education starting from a very early age,” he noted.
“I feel until the human behaviour of Indian society doesn’t change, we can’t solve the issue,” Gadkari says, emphasising the role of media and social organizations in doing the same and solving the raging issue of road rage and the large number of road accidents.
As Gadkari gears up for the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha polls, he signed off by expressing confidence that people’s blessings will fetch his party a thumping majority, helping further India’s infrastructure goals.
