E-Paper
Gadkari promises Rs 2.5L crore for national highways, roads in Uttar Pradesh
Giving a big boost to highway projects in Uttar Pradesh, union minister for road transport, highways and shipping Nitin Gadkari promised Rs 2.5 lakh crore for construction of national highways and roads in UP.
Giving a big boost to highway projects in Uttar Pradesh, union minister for road transport, highways and shipping Nitin Gadkari on Friday promised Rs 2.5 lakh crore for construction of national highways and roads in the state.
Addressing a conference on new technology for road construction, Gadkari said roads were directly related to development and employment and so “roads are important for progress of any state.”
“To put Uttar Pradesh on the path of progress, as a union minister I will give Rs 2 lakh crore for construction of highways and an extra Rs 50 crore, if it demands, to ensure rapid progress of the state,” he said.
He also promised projects worth Rs 2,000 crore for UP State Bridge Corporation.
“But I want quality work and no corruption,” warned the minister. He directed deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya to plan out projects for the state “to give wings to development.”
“When Atal Behari Vajpayee was PM, he called me to prepare a scheme for connecting villages to cities. Nabard chairman gave a report to me that if we connect villages to roads then GDP of country would increase by Rs 1.10 lakh crore per annum. Today just because of vision of Atal Behari Vajpayee, 1.70 lakh villages have been connected to cities and all villages would be connected with roads in the next five years,” Gadkari said.
He continued, “I always ask ministers to come up with projects beneficial for the common man and funds will never be a problem.”
He said, “We want new technology in road construction to reduce the costs. If IITs are willing to set up research wings for roads then we are ready to fund them. We just want the IITs to file for patents in technology as China is filing 20,000 patents every year, USA is crossing a lakh mark but in India only 2500 patents are filed every year. The shows we have to work hard on research.”
Read more: Kashi to Haldia cruise from Jan 2019, says Gadkari
Gadkari said the centre planned to double the national highway network from 7,200 km to 15,000 km in next five years. He also said the under construction Delhi-Meerut highway would be of 14 lanes and that the stone laying ceremony of the 14-lane Lucknow-Kanpur highway would be performed soon.
Earlier chief minister Yogi Adityanath said a lot of plastic waste is produced in state and if it is mixed with ‘damur’ (bitumen) for road construction it can reduce costs and add to the strength of road. He called on the engineers to look for better and cheaper options for road construction.
