Centre ready to offer Rs 50,000 cr worth road networks in TN

The Centre was ready to offer Rs 50,000 crore worth of road networks to Tamil Nadu if the state government offered co-operation, Union Minister of Roadways, Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari said today.
"I am ready to offer Rs 50,000 crore worth of road networks if the state government co-operates. Only problem in road sector is land acquisition. It is a very difficult task," he said at a meeting organised by Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry here tonight.
Noting that the government was focusing more on concrete roads instead of bitumen, he said, "my target is within five years we have to develop Rs five lakh crore of road networks (across the country)".

"I am making a public statement. My request to state government is they should coordinate with us. We will sit and discuss. Our intention is to develop good infrastructure. Land acquisition is very important and difficult task," he said.
Observing that 12 projects concerned with Tamil Nadu were in progress, he said 10 projects had been taken up while two projects were under litigation in the Supreme Court.
On the Shipping related projects, he said India was very much backward due to lack of infrastructure and lot of initiatives need to be taken up.

"We need ship building and ship breaking projects. We are searching for joint ventures," he said.

"Even in the meeting we had today, we decided to develop Kolachal Port in Kanyakumari District in Tamil Nadu," he said.
He said the government was mulling to change the 1988 Motor Vehicle Act and bring in more procedures ensuring "efficiency" and "transparency".
"We don't want to play politics... I have taken responsibility that we should increase two per cent of GDP in two years at least in my sector," he said.
Earlier in the day, Gadkari, who is on a two-day visit to Tamil Nadu, interacted with top officials of Chennai Port Trust and Ennore Port Ltd here.
He is scheduled to make an aerial visit of Sethusamudram project Tamil Nadu tomorrow.