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India is now second to United States in terms of largest road network around the world. India has beaten China to the second spot by adding 1.45-lakh km of road network since 2014. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari held a press conference on Tuesday, sharing his ministry's achievements during his tenure so far. In the past nine years, India has added a number of greenfield expressways. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is almost completed constructing the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway, India's longest ever.
Gadkari said India's road network was 91,287 kms nine years ago. Under Gadkari's tenure, NHAI has been on a construction spree of new national highways and expressways in the past few years. Since April 2019, the NHAI has constructed more than 30,000 kms of highways across the country, including major expressways like the one that connects Delhi with Meerut, or Lucknow with Ghazipur in UP.
Gadkari also mentioned the contribution of NHAI which recorded as many as seven world records during this period. In May this year, the NHAI laid 100 kms of new expressway within 100 hours. The landmark was achieved during construction of the upcoming Ghaziabad-Aligarh Expressway in Uttar Pradesh. In August last year, NHAI set the Guinness World Record by successfully constructing the 75 km continuous single bituminous concrete road between Amravati and Akola on NH-53 in a record time of 105 hours and 33 minutes.
During the press conference, Gadkari also pointed out how revenue from roads and highways have also increased under his tenure. He informed that toll collection has gone up to ₹41,342 crore from ₹4,770 crore nine years ago. He said the Centre now aims to increase toll revenue to ₹1.30 lakh crore. Gadkari also said how usage of FASTags has helped in cutting down long queues at the toll plazas. According to the minister, the average time a vehicle spends now at toll plazas is 47 seconds. He said his ministry is trying to reduce the time further to below 30 seconds soon.