India a 7th largest nation and fifth largest economy comprising 140 Core of Population and 3,287,263 square kilometers of land, presents widespread challenges in front of its ministers to work. Nitin Gadkari is a man on mission to transform India’s road network and transportation system. Clear vison of the leader and clear direction of India’s PM Modi has apparently planned for long-term economic impact.
India’s road and transport Minister Nitin Gadkari has eliminated several obstacles in path of Development of Nation and has came victorious in his work.
With respect to growing population, huge network of roads is required because roads are still the most used transportation medium in India.
As of 1st December 2021, there are 3,862,317 mi of roads in India. This is the second-largest road network in the world. Since 2014 Modi government, the union roads and transportation minister Nitin Gadkari ji is striving hard to expand the road and transport network in all possible areas of India. Now Mr Gadkari is working on his vision 2030 regarding roads and transportation. Let us discus about it in detail.
Vision of Road Infrastructure under Nitin Gadkari:
Nitin Gadkari popularly revered for constructing National highways or expressways at an record speed has magnum list of upcoming Expressways connecting major states and cities. These highways are essential for growth in trade and mobility as the efficient roads and its system offers better opportunity to achieve the target at an expeditious growth.
Gadkari is faithful of his promises and delivers whatever he says at a record time. Nitin Gadkari during his parliamentary speech said that we will make India’s road infrastructure equivalent to USA by 2024.
Adhering to the same purpose he will accomplish his targets by 2024 that includes expressways such as Delhi-Dehradun in 2 hours, Delhi-Haridwar in 2 hours, Delhi-Jaipur in 2 hours, Delhi-Chandigarh in 2.5 hours, Delhi-Amritsar in 4 hours, Delhi-Katra in 6 hours, Delhi-Srinagar in 8 hours, Delhi-Mumbai in 12 hours, Chennai-Bangaluru in 2 hours and Lucknow-Kanpur in 35 minutes.
Following this catalogue, he has successfully accomplished his first target of Delhi-Meerut in just 40 minutes earlier it use to take nearly 4 hours to reach the destination. Nitin Gadkari further noted stating in the parliament that he will going to construct 26 Green highways in India by 2024.
Currently in India, there are only 33 operational expressways, 3 operational National Expressways (NE), and 18 state expressways. Under Nitin Gadkari’s ambition, there are around 35 expressways under Construction, 43 are proposed expressways, 5 National Expressways (NE) are under construction, and 13 are proposed expressways under Bharatmala project.
Nitin Gadkari in his term of nearly 8 years has made India proud in Road Infrastructure by Constructing India’s longest expressway till date that is Purvanchal Expressway of 340 KM, India’s widest Expressway that is Delhi-Meerut Expressway of 14 lanes, Trans Haryana Expressway and Bundelkhand Expressway of 296 KM. Under his able leadership in road and transport sector, India achieved target of constructing 37 KM per day.
Therefore, it seems that Gadkari’s upcoming projects will definitely going to uplift India’s Road Infrastructure to World’s highest peak.
Vision of Electrical Vehicle (EV) dominant Country under Nitin Gadkari
Diesel, Petrol, CNG, PNG, etc which are primarily used as fuel in vehicle are extracted from the crust of the earth. Due to high rate of extraction and consumption rates of those fuels, there may be shortage of fuels in the future. Also India has to import most of its fuel from other countries, due to which a heavy financial burden is exerted upon Indian economy.
With the aim to reduce this burden, Union roads and Transportation Minister Nitin Gadkari ji came up with a vision to create an alternative option for fuel in India. Also due to combustion of fuels, the air gets polluted which harms environment and public health, this leads to the global warming considered as a huge concern for the globe.
Thus, the adoption Electrical Vehicle by Government is also stressed and promoted by the Niti Aayog under the leadership of minister PM Narendra Modi and Nitin Gadkari.
While addressing an virtual event organized by FICCI, an industrial body, honorable Minister Nitin Gadkari ji said, “The government intends to have EV sales penetration of 30 per cent for private cars, 70 per cent for commercial vehicles, 40 per cent for buses, and 80 per cent for two and three-wheelers by 2030.
Gadkari ji further said that, “to facilitate the moment of heavy duty trucks and passenger buses on electricity, a potential pilot project is being planned to install and electric highway between Delhi Mumbai expressways.”
Gadkari’s vision for Flex Fuel and AtmaNirbharta in fuel sector
With the target of reducing India’s import dependence on petroleum products and providing benefit to farmers, Indian government is asking vehicle manufacturers in India to adopt BS-6 technology incoming six months.
Flex Fuel Vehicles (FAV) and Flex Fuel Strong Hybrid Electric Vehicles (FFV-SHEV) will be based on BS -6 technologies.
In a tweet regarding this Union Minister of road and transport Nitin Gadkari ji said, “for realizing the Prime Minister Narendra Modi idea of “Atmanirbhar Bharat’ government is promoting ethanol for transport.
The flex fuel vehicles to be built under this will be able to run on 100% petrol or 100% bio-ethanol blend as well as strong hybrid electric in case of FFV – SHEV.”
Shri Gadkari said that this step will help India reduce vehicular greenhouse gas emissions and also help India meet its COP 26 target of reducing its total carbon emissions by 1 billion tones by 2030.
Gadkari further wrote, “Steps such as introduction of vehicles with flex fuel engines, encouraging blending of ethanol with gasoline will be taken in the next five years which will surely help us to achieve our target of “Make in India’ in the near future.”
Transforming Toll sector by introducing ANPR in India:
Toll booths on roads are a big management problem for the toll booth employees and also for the travelers on the road due to them, the problem of time waste and traffic jam are frequently faced by the travelers. Gadkari ji has declared in the parliament, that there will be no toll booths on the road by 2030.
Talking in Parliament Nitin Gadkari ji said, “Now a days we use Fasttag system for toll payment which required approximately 47 seconds for each payment. Instead of toll booth, we will fit Automatic Number Plate Reader (ANPR) cameras on each highway. In this system, the camera will click the photo of number plates of the vehicles. The toll tax will be directly debited from the bank account linked with the number plate.”
Gadkari ji further said that, “Our Ministry has decided it in 2019 itself. We have started the trials also. In coming four years, we are going to replace the old number plates of vehicles with a special number plate.
Also we will replace toll booth with automatic number plate reader cameras. The cameras will read the number plate and deduct the toll tax amount from the bank account connected with that number plate preferably of the owner of that vehicle. If somebody tries to hide their vehicle from camera a strict action will be taken against them.
Special rules will be made for the people who have zero balance in their bank accounts for the payment of toll tax.” The concerned work is expected to be accomplished by 2030 as per the government.
Conclusion:
Therefore, the future of Road, Transport and Highways of India seems secured and well implemented under the able leadership of PM Narendra Modi Ji and Nitin Gadkari Ji. Modi government and Gadkri Ji’s revolutionary ideas will transform India and promote Indian Model of road Infrastructure across the globe just like its strong diplomacy.
The implementation of EV, flex fuels and high tech roads will not only benefit transportation but, will also boost Indian standard that directly promote strong diplomatic and trade relations with other countries.
Written by Swapna Anil Wankhade and edited by Yagya Mehru