Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Saturday said the government is targeting a speed of 50 km per day for the construction of national highways in the country, and expressed hope that the speed in the current financial year will be higher than that of 2020-21.
In fact, while addressing the ‘ET Global Business Summit’, Gadkari said that the government is giving top priority to develop road network along the border areas of Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.
“Now, we want to go up to 50 km (construction) per day (highway),” he said.
The speed of National Highway (NH) construction in the country touched a record 37 km per day in 2020-21.
The Minister of Road Transport and Highways said, this week they have signed a file for awarding contracts for the construction of 1000 km of highways.
Gadkari said that due to the COVID-induced disruptions, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL) faced some problems.
“But still for this (financial) year, by the end of March, we will try to break the highway construction record of the previous financial year,” he said.
Also, their mission is to reduce logistics cost, the minister said. He said that at present the logistics cost in India is 16 percent, in China (12 percent), America (12 percent) and in European countries it is 10 percent.