Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari on Friday said that the government is working towards expanding the national highway network to two lakh kilometres by 2025.
Speaking at an event organized by Indian Road Congress (IRC), Gadkari proposed the setting up of an ‘innovation bank’ for new ideas, research findings and technologies to focus on quality infrastructure development.
He said, “Our government is dedicatedly working towards expanding the National Highway network to 2 lakh kilometres by 2025.”
The Union minister mentioned that the length of the national highways has gone up by more than 50 per cent, from 91,000 kilometres in 2014 to 1.47 lakh kilometres now, in the last eight years.
Gadkari said that national highways and infrastructure development corporation (NHIDC) is playing an important role in developing infrastructure in the northeastern region, stating that the government is committed to development in the region.
He said, “Till date, 2,344 km highway has been constructed at the cost of ₹ 45,000 crore in the North East region.”
The minister also said that infrastructure development has an important role in fulfilling the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi of making India a five trillion dollar economy.
The focus for all engineers should be on innovation and IRC should develop a world-class state-of-the-art laboratory with the help of IITs and global institutions, he said.
Gadkari added that there should be minimum carbon footprint and exploitation of limited natural resources during the construction and operation phase.
A sustainable alternative for steel and cement should be found, according to him.
