My Target Is To Achieve Over 100 Km Per Day Of Highway Construction: Nitin Gadkari

Union Road and Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday (11 August) said that the his aim is to achieve over 100 km per day of highway construction.

"We have a world record of making 38 km per day [of highway]... I am not satisfied about the present performance. My target is going up to more than 100 km per day," Gadkari said while virtually addressing a CII event.

The minister further said that he wants to make the road infrastructure in India at par with the US standard.

“To reduce vehicular congestion on existing highways, we are focusing more on greenfield expressways. Across these green alignments, we want to develop logistics parks, smart cities, industrial hubs, infrastructure clusters etc” said Gadkari.

He also sought the support of the industry to connect the government with the willing to participate in the green projects in the country.

“Within three months we are going to finalise the technology for replacing toll plazas in the country, which is going to save us hundreds of crores and make travel hassle-free for the commuters”, said Gadkari.

Gadkari opined that the decision-making process and delays are the two main problems hurting the growth of infrastructure in India. Therefore, the prime push of this government is to have time-bound, result oriented, transparent and corruption free system, he added.

He also requested Industry to give suggestions on reducing delays.

“Asset monetisation is key to meet finances for our projects and we are confident that NHAI will be able to raise Rs 1.40 lakh crore per year from existing highway projects”, said Gadkari, according to a CII statement.

Emphasising on replacing diesel fuel, he requested contractors to use green fuels such as ethanol, CNG etc for construction equipment and offered to provide advances to for green construction equipment.