Roads being built in Uttarakhand will open its doors to prosperity: Gadkari

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday said road projects underway in Uttarakhand will boost tourism in the state and generate employment opportunities for local people.

Addressing the concluding rally of the BJP's Vijay Sankalp Yatra for Kumaon in Khatima, Gadkari said after he became the minister of road transport and highways, he decided to change the face of Uttarakhand with projects worth Rs 2 lakh crore for the state, several of which have been completed as work is underway on others.

"Work on 568 km of the Chardham all-weather road has already been done, and work on the remaining stretches will also start soon following the recent clearance given by the Supreme Court," the Union minister said.

A 210-km-long six-lane access control expressway will be built at a cost of Rs 12,000 crore connecting Akshardham in Delhi and Dehradun, via Uttar Pradesh, in two years, he said, adding this will reduce the travel time between the two cities to just two hours.

Gadkari said this road will make travelling between the two cities so convenient that Dehradun-Delhi flight operations will become redundant.

"These roads and many others, on which work is in progress, will open Uttarakhand's doors to prosperity by giving an unprecedented boost to tourism and generating employment opportunities for local people," he said.

"What you have seen so far is just a trailer, the film is yet to come," the minister said.

He said there will be a direct road connecting Uttarakhand to Mansarovar in the coming years.

"The credit for it does not go to me or Pushkar Singh Dhami or Narendra Modi. It goes to you because you decided to vote for a double-engine government," Gadkari said.

Accompanied by Chief Minister Dhami, Union Minister of State for Defence and Tourism Ajay Bhatt and state BJP president Madan Kaushik also participated in the Vijay Sankalp Yatra through the streets of Khatima.

The yatra ended in Kumaon region with the rally. It will end for Garhwal region in Gangotri with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh addressing a rally there on January 6.