Govt aims to build 60 km roads every day, claims Nitin Gadkari

Union Minister for road transport and highways, Nitin Gadkari, has claimed that the Indian government aims to build 60 kilometres of roads every day across the country. He also said that the new roads across India would be built with facilities such as helipads and drone pads for quick and emergency transport. However, despite talking about such an ambitious plan, the minister didn't provide any specific timeline for that.

Expressing satisfaction with the development of highways across India, Gadkari said that the country's public transport sector would be revolutionised in the coming years. He also claimed that the new highways would drastically reduce travel time between key cities. “In the coming years, public transport will be revolutionised in the country, and the new highways will bring down travel time between key cities drastically," the minister stated.

While expressing satisfaction with the development of highways across the country, Gadkari said that his ministry (MoRTH) and the government had failed to bring down the accident on Indian roads. He said that the government wanted to reduce road accidents by 50 per cent by 2024, but that won't be achievable. “We wanted to reduce road accidents by 50 per cent by 2024, but we are not going to achieve it," he said.

The minister believes that to bring down the rate of road accidents across the country, human behaviour has to be changed as people still do not follow the traffic rules properly. Basic traffic rules like following red lights, wearing car seat belts or wearing helmets while riding two-wheelers are frequently flouted by people, which often results in road accidents, leading to critical injuries and even death for many. The minister urged the society to introduce road safety education at the primary level to make Indians aware of this at a young age.