Thiruvananthapuram
India has set an ambitious goal of making its road infrastructure equal to the US in the next five years besides decongesting metros and considerably reducing travel time and road mishaps, said Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari.
In the last nine years, Gadkari, in a mission mode to make the country’s roads safer and smarter, said his ministry had awarded work for projects worth more than Rs 50 lakh crore and also eased the procedure for sanctioning contracts by improving the existing policies.
Asserting that he ‘never gives false promises’, the minister stressed that futuristic development of infrastructure is the need of the country. Determined to make India number one in the automobile sector, he said India’s automobile industry had recently surpassed Japan to become the third behind China and the US. He also strongly pitched for introducing electric and flex fuel vehicles to reduce consumption of fossil fuel, whose import bill is Rs 16 lakh crore. Some vehicles, with flex engines, are now being powered by ethanol instead of petrol. It will bring the average cost of fuel to Rs 15 as ethanol’s rate is only Rs 60 and it would also generate electricity. We are now opening ethanol pumps, he informed.
Gadkari said it would also empower Indian farmers to double up as ‘urjadaata’ (energy producer) while being ‘anndaata’ (food producer) as ethanol fuel can be produced from crops like sugarcane and rice stalk. As for the future of public transportation, he said India is now making ropeways, cable cars and running public transport on electricity. Efforts are underway to introduce electric buses in more cities. Within five years public transport will totally change. It will be a less polluting, more cost-effective substitute, he said. He also disclosed that new border roads are being built which are strategically important. There are 30 roads where airplanes can safely land. Plans are afoot to develop 670 roadside amenities which will also have heliports and drone ports.
