New Delhi, Jul 9: Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Friday called for reducing the use of steel and cement in road construction without comprising quality through innovation and research.
Addressing the 16th Annual Conference on “Road Development in India” he said, natural fuels like CNG, LNG and ethanol should be used for the road equipment machinery and also emphasized import substitution, cost-effective, pollution-free and indigenous methods and development of alternative fuel.
Mr Gadkari said India with about 63 lakh km of the road network is the second largest road network in the world.
He said road infrastructure plays a critical role in the growth of the economy as 70 per cent of the goods and nearly 90 per cent of passenger traffic uses roads to commute.
He also said that the Prime Minister has set a vision for India to become a five trillion dollar economy in the next five years.
“Government is investing 1.4 trillion dollars, equivalent to Rs 111 lakh crore in infrastructure development through national infrastructure pipeline, further this year, Government has increased year on year infrastructure capex by 34 per cent to Rs 5.54 lakh crores”, he added.
The Transport and Highways Minister further said that increased investment in infrastructure would help create employment during the Covid pandemic and reiterated that his aim was to construct a 60,000 km world-class national highway at the rate of 40 km per day.
