Govt to roll out Rs 2 lakh-cr infra projects this year, says Gadkari

The government on Friday said it would implement infrastructure projects worth Rs 2 lakh crore this year to underline the priority of the sector in the overall economy.

The government on Friday said it would implement infrastructure projects worth Rs 2 lakh crore this year to underline the priority of the sector in the overall economy. This comes on the back of fast-tracking a tranche of highway projects worth Rs 1.5 lakh crore that were stuck on account of various regulatory hurdles.

"We are fast-tracking the decision-making process and weeding out corruption and red-tapism from government functioning besides introducing innovation," said Nitin Gadkari, minister for road transport and highways.

"We have cleared bottlenecks. It is easy to construct express highways but difficult to get environment clearance. We have cleared projects worth Rs 1.5 lakh crore. This year we will launch projects worth Rs 2 lakh crore."

Bulks of the funds would be used for either building new highways or widening existing ones in order to keep pace with the needs of a growing economy. Gadkari said his he was also looking to build 200,000 km of roads under the public-private-partnership mode that includes widening of existing 100,000 km of highways.

Exhorting the domestic industry to invest more and generate employment, he asked car makers to be prepared for change in the form of a new Motor Vehicles legislation that would replace the decadent existing act.