Union minister Nitin Gadkari said he wants India to have world-class roads and he will try his best to match US standards before the end of 2024. The minister, who was called ‘Roadkari’ by Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray, said infrastructure development was one of the most important goals to realise Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s $5-trillion economy dream.
He spoke to News18 about nine years of handling the ministry of road transport and highways, and upcoming projects in the remaining one year of the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre. He also talked about the development of EV infrastructure in the country, and challenges faced by the country with regard to road safety as well as traffic violations. Excerpts from an interview:
How are you planning to spend the next one year in government? In the last nine years, you have ensured that all your goals related to roads and highways are met.
Infrastructure development is important for India. Without infrastructure, we won’t have industry, trade and business; and without that, we cannot create jobs, employment potential; and without that, we cannot eradicate poverty. The thing is – water, power and transportation are important for the country’s development. India is the fastest growing economy and we have tremendous opportunities; this is the time we need to develop international standards of infrastructure in the country. For the prime minister’s dream of making the Indian economy of $5 trillion and making the country ‘atmanirbhar’, we need good infrastructure.
As the minister of road transport, my dream is to make Indian roads world class and match US standards before the end of 2024. We are making 32 ‘green’ express highways, access control and, in Delhi alone, we are constructing a project of Rs 65,000 crore. In Kashmir, we are making the Zoji La tunnel and have already completed the Atal tunnel in Himachal Pradesh. Between Srinagar and Jammu, we are making 16 tunnels of which 12 are complete. After the Katra-Delhi express highway comes up, it will take four hours to reach Amritsar from Delhi, six hours to Katra, eight hours to Srinagar, two hours to Jaipur and Dehradun, one and a half hours to Haridwar, and six hours to Manali.
The way you talk about it shows that this is your passion project. Just looking at the data, under your leadership, India has added 53,953 km of road length from 2013 to March 2022. This is a whopping 59 percent addition. Would you call this a success or will you say it’s a new milestone for you?
I am never satisfied. We need to do more. At the same time, we have seven world records. That is a great pride for the country that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, my ministry with the help of all stakeholders, has created seven world records. As far as performance is concerned, people are satisfied about it but my dream is to add at least 25,000 km of road length in the time that I have left; that is my own target. The NHAI (National Highways Authority of India) is making 6,000 km of roads per year. My target for the NHAI is 10,000 km per year. Fortunately, the budget from the finance minister is generous at Rs 2.7 lakh crore and, since we are monetising the roads at the same time, we aren’t facing money problems.
Now in the second phase, we are making a logistics park for Rs 2 lakh crore. We are making a ropeway, cable car and railway. We have 260 proposals of Rs 1.3 lakh crore. Then we are planning to develop bus ports and, at the same time, for cities like Bengaluru, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, our idea is to develop a public transport system on electricity. We want to develop an electric highway from Delhi to Jaipur. We are also trying to develop a new model of electric buses in the country.
Talking about electric buses, EV is your dream project. We saw you driving an electric car only recently. How feasible are these in terms of achievement? How soon can we see it?
Actually, there is already a waiting list. If you want to purchase an electric car, there is a waiting list for a year. There is a short supply of electric buses because we need to increase our capacity for that. Electric mobility is now encouraged by all the sectors. First, you have to understand one problem; we have the import of fossil fuel of Rs 16 lakh crore and electricity is indigenous. So, my transport ministry had the priority for electric, ethanol, methanol, biodiesel, bio LNG, bio CNG and hydrogen. So, in place of an import of Rs 16 lakh crore, if we can reduce it to Rs 3 lakh crore to Rs 4 lakh crore, the remaining Rs 12 lakh crore will go into the Indian market, particularly in India’s rural, agricultural and tribal belts for making alternative fuel. It will increase the growth rate in agriculture, create new jobs and protect the ecology as well as the environment.
But what about the fact that EVs are unable to generate much curiosity because there is a lack of infrastructure, which includes charging stations, battery manufacturing capacity among others. How do you see these challenges?
First of all, you are talking about charging stations and infrastructure. Now the cars that we have now, they have a range of 400 to 600 km per day. As for the survey for Bajaj and TVS scooters, the conclusion was that these vehicles run for 24 to 26 km per day. And for a car, it is 60-80 km per day. People can charge their electric car, tempo, auto-rickshaw or scooter in their homes at night. It is fully charged in two hours but the problem is not that. It is easy in the city, but the problem starts when you want to go outside the city for longer journeys. So, in the NHAI, we are already planning on making 670 roads and amenities, where charging stations will be available. And for the buses, there will be restaurants, malls and all kinds of shops. So, for half an hour or so, the buses can be recharged at a station and hit the road again. We are in the process of starting electric trucks or electric cable through which we want to take a bus from Delhi to Jaipur.
Everything is on track, but there is one concern that you have repeatedly shared regarding road accidents. You have spoken about helmets, seat belts, fire alarm systems as well. But why aren’t we able to get a handle on traffic violations? Quoting you from what you said recently, every year, five lakh accidents take place in the country and 1.5 lakh people are killed in such accidents due to which 3 percent of the GDP is going into it.
You are absolutely correct. This is the only area which I feel is really problematic. We are trying our best but we are unable to succeed and now we have the highest number of road accidents in the world. But this is because of four problems – automobile engineering, road engineering, education and emergency as well as enforcement. We already have a new law, the Road Safety Act, passed by Parliament.