Nitin Gadkari to empower ‘India’s Road Ahead’ plan
Despite India being the second largest road network in the world, there is a constant need for the network to evolve and add more roads to this network if we want to connect the ever-growing population of the country. At the same time, as was clear when the US suffered the crippling economic depression of the 1930s, there's nothing like road-building to provide jobs and to catalyse economic growth.
In order to address this and other related issues, Free Press Journal-Moneycontrol.com is organising ‘India’s Road Ahead’ conference on December 9, 2017 from 9 am onwards. Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Shipping and Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Nitin Gadkari will deliver the keynote address at this conference.
According to NHAI data, the Indian road network comprises more than 33 lakh kilometres with rural and other roads contributing more than 26 lakh km, followed by district roads, state highways, national highways and expressways. Today, the National highways — which a few years ago accounted for around 55,000-70,000 km out of 3.5 million km of roadways in India — has been expanded to account for around 2 lakh km. This has become possible because roads that used to belong to the state have now been taken over by the Central government.
Commenting about the sector, Virendra D Mhaiskar, CMD, IRB Infrastructure Developers Ltd said, “The sector seems to be in aggressive mode and given due focus, as the government has come up with several ambitious projects under various schemes. However, the key challenge will be funding of the projects as present focus on certain models like HAM and EPC will not generate adequate funding; and on the contrary may financially burden the government. In that case, there would be no option but to go back to BOT and TOT models and invite private investments and partnering with foreign funds, which would be a great opportunity for developers as well as a sigh of relief for government as it would not have to spend.”
The data of NHAI further revealed that about 65 per cent of freight and 80 per cent passenger traffic is carried by road. With the number of vehicles growing at an average pace of 10.16 per cent per annum over the last five years, it is vital for road sector to grow. Roads are not just to connect people or ease traffic but it can also open up employment opportunities. For instance, Maharashtra's 'Samruddhi Mahamarg' which is an expressway that will connect Mumbai-Nagpur, will generate employment in the region. This project is implemented by MSRDC and has 24 interchanges.
In an interview with FPJ in the past, Kiran Kurundkar, joint managing director (administration and finance), MSRDC said, “As a special planning authority, we will be bringing about growth in all the 24 access points of this expressway. This will bring about planned development in those areas and this will leverage prosperity in the region.”
Yet another aspect that is critical in building roads especially in hilly regions, is tunnelling. This will also be discussed at the conference. Tunnelling will be a game changer in the North Eastern region of India.
Nitin Gadkari will deliver the keynote address at a conference organised by Free Press Journal and Moneycontrol.com