“To make India a strong economic power, infrastructure is key. We have taken a decision to convert 25,000-30,000 km two-lane highways in the country into four lanes for Rs 8-10 lakh crore,” he said.
The road transport and highways minister further said his dream is to complete road projects worth Rs 5-6 lakh crore every year.
Gadkari also said the government is working to revise the build-operate-transfer (BOT) model for the construction of roads, under which the highways ministry will collect tolls for 15 years, and share part of it with concessionaires.
“We will construct highways under the BOT model but for 15 years toll will be collected by the government and we will give money to them(concessionaires) on an annuity basis,” he said, adding maintenance of highways for 15 years will be done by contractors.Making agriculture viable
Indian agriculture needs to become economically viable as it is necessary to make the country ‘Atmanirbhar’, Gadkari said while speaking at the 4th International BBB Summit & Expo on Bioenergy Value Chain on Thursday.
According to Gadkari, there is a need to diversify India’s agriculture towards the energy and power sector, as the country does not have enough capacity for the storage of foodgrains and to increase employment potential in rural and tribal India as these areas are facing crucial economic problems.
“Indian agriculture is not very economically viable. Now, this is the time we need to find out the solution to make our agriculture economically viable as without that, we cannot make Atmanirbhar Bharat,” he said.
In the present situation, Gadkari said, the big problem is that India has a surplus of foodgrain, rice, wheat and sugar. “And these are the problems we are facing…we need to find out how the farmers will get remunerative prices,” he said.
Gadkari also pointed out that by creating a good market for biofuels, India is going to reduce the demand for fossil fuels. “If we want to reduce pollution, then green fuel is very important for sustainable development,” he said.
