Ashok Gehlot asks Gadkari to declare 50 state highways as national highways

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Wednesday asked the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari to expedite the pending proposals for declaring 50 state highways as national highways.

This will strengthen the infrastructure of the state and the areas connected with these roads will develop rapidly, he said.

Gehlot was addressing the inauguration and foundation stone laying programme of 19 projects on Delhi-Jaipur National Highway costing Rs 1,407 crore through video conference in the presence of Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari and Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Wednesday.

He said that roads are the basis of social and economic development. Keeping this thinking in mind, the state government is giving priority to the development of roads in the state. It is our endeavour that national highways and other roads should be developed rapidly in the state.

In a statement, he said that for this purpose, in the last three years, work has been done for the development of 42,000 km long roads at a cost of Rs 18,000 crore. Under the third phase of Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, 4,500 km long roads have been built in the state. In the budget of the year 2022-23, the state government has made a provision of more than Rs 5,133 crore for the development of roads.

The chief minister said that under the direction of Union Minister, the construction of National Highway projects in the state has gained momentum and good work is being done in this direction.

Gehlot requested Nitin Gadkari to initiate a plan to promote electric vehicles on the lines of JNNURM in the public transport system. This will also help in reducing the problem of pollution spread by vehicles in the metros and will save fuel.

Expressing concern over the large number of deaths in road accidents in the country and the state, the Chief Minister said that a national policy should be made in this direction so that traumatic accidents can be prevented.

He urged Gadkari to convene a meeting of the Transport and Public Works Ministers of all the states of the country for this.