Highways passing through a bad phase: Gadkari

The highways sector in India is currently passing through a bad phase with many projects having been dropped for different reasons, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said Tuesday.

"Not a single kilometre of highway network could be added in the month of July," Gadkari said addressing a meeting of the Indian Roads Congress.

Pointing out that highway developers dropped projects worth about Rs.50,000 crore in the absence of land acquisition and environmental clearances, the minister called upon officials and other stake holders to speed up the process to achieve the target of building 30 km of highways per day in the next two years.

"Right now, the average construction is to the tune of three km per day. After two years, I aim to take this target to 30 km per day," Gadkari had said soon after taking charge.

He also urged the Indian Roads Congress to concentrate on Research and Development and designing as per global standards.

Speaking to media persons on the sidelines of the meeting, Gadkari said the government will amend the Motor Vehicles Act in the winter session of parliament, underlining the need to overhaul the existing "obsolete" system to also check regional transport offices (RTOs) corruption.

The new law is being designed to provide permits online besides fines for traffic violations on the basis of recordings made on camera, the minister said.

"The Motor Vehicles Amendment Bill, being prepared in sync with practises in six advanced nations - USA, Canada, Singapore, Japan, Germany and the UK - will be introduced in the next session of parliament. This will overhaul the sector bringing to an end the corrupt practises in RTOs," Gadkari said.

--Indo-Asian News service

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