Can raise ₹8 lakh crore annually for road projects: Gadkari
What's the story
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has said that India can mobilize up to ₹8 lakh crore each year for road projects. He stressed the importance of highway construction in boosting economic growth, saying every ₹1 spent on infrastructure generates ₹3 in economic activity. However, he admitted that slow spending remains a major challenge in the sector. "Our problem is we are unable to spend. Our speed of spending is too low," Gadkari said, according to PTI.
Funding plan
Government can raise ₹5 lakh crore annually from market
Gadkari said the government can raise ₹5 lakh crore annually from the market, thanks to a strong asset profile in the highways sector. This is in addition to the budgetary support of ₹3.2 lakh crore. He cited the Dwarka Expressway project as an example of how infrastructure spending can lead to real estate investments, attracting over ₹8 lakh crore in realty investments.
Infrastructure update
Gadkari announced ground-breaking for ₹40,000 crore projects in Pune soon
Gadkari announced that ground-breaking for projects worth ₹40,000 crore in Pune will begin soon. These include the Pune-Aurangabad Expressway and four other projects. He also spoke about plans for a new Mumbai-Bengaluru express highway to reduce travel time between the two cities to five hours. However, he acknowledged delays in implementing the Mumbai-Goa national highway due to land acquisition issues.
Construction progress
Highway construction has slowed down to 32-34km per day
The minister admitted that highway construction has slowed down to 32-34km per day from an earlier 40km per day. The ministry aims to ramp up this pace to 60km per day. Despite these challenges, Gadkari said complaints about road quality are few and attributed this to holding contractors accountable for their work.
Tech implementation
Aim to convert all toll plazas into multi-lane free-flow facilities
The ministry is also looking to convert all 900 toll plazas into multi-lane free-flow facilities by the end of the year. Gadkari said the government is saving over ₹8,000 crore annually due to technology implementations at the toll plazas as operational costs go down. He also announced plans for 105 tenders for creating these facilities soon.