New Delhi [India]: Emphasising the importance of infrastructure for improving the revenue base of the government, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said that well-developed infrastructure would play an important role in fulfilling the vision of India in becoming the Five Trillion Dollar economy in the next five years. Gadkari was addressing the 29th Annual General Meeting of the American Chambers of Commerce in India on the theme ‘infrastructure propelling India in the global supply chain’ through a video conference. “The bilateral trade between India and US has grown from USD 16 Billion USD to USD149 Billion in the last two decades and is projected to reach more than USD 500 Billion by 2025. The scope of technology transfer, innovation and research and development between India and the US must be further explored,” the Union Minister said. “Infrastructure development plays an important role in fulfilling the vision of India in becoming the Five Trillion Dollar economy in the next five years. The government is investing 1.4 Trillion Dollars in infrastructure development through National Infrastructure Pipeline (NMP) and soon going to launch the national master plan of Prime Minister Gatishakti Scheme of more than 100 lakh crores Rupees for holistic and integrated infrastructure development in the country,” he said. The Minister further informed that India has about six million km of road network which is the second largest road network in the world. “The road infrastructure plays an important role in the Indian economy as 70 per cent of the goods and nearly 90 per cent of the passenger traffic uses the road network to commute. Upkeep and expansion of this network are critical not only from the supply chain perspective but also for the largest share of goods and passenger traffic that uses it.” Gadkari said to catalyze a long term investment into infrastructure, the Government is in a process of setting up a new development finance institution DFR. The institution is being set up on a capital base of Rs 20,000 Crore and will have a lending target of Rs 5 Lakh crores in three years. “We are ready to adopt the world’s best technology without compromising quality, cost-effectiveness and sustainability. Our focus is on time-bound, qualitative, cost-effective and sustainable world-class infra development in this country,” he added.
