‘Preventing accidents my biggest priority… I’m a minister with no dearth of funds’: Nitin Gadkari in Vadodara

He also announced that the Signature bridge in Dwarka as well as the Gujarat phase of the Delhi-Mumbai highway will be ready within the next three months. Gadkari also added that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has “instructed” him to have the Signature bridge in Dwarka ready for inauguration by Janmashtmi.

While inaugurating the flyover, constructed at a cost of Rs 54 crore on the Dumad-Dena crossroad — one of Vadodara’s most accident-prone blind spot that has seen several fatal accidents over the years — Gadkari said that having survived a near-fatal car crash in 2001 has made him “prioritise road safety”.

Stating that Gujarat Minister of State for Home Harsh Sanghvi had apprised him about the Accident Resolution Committees at the district level to look into the blind spots, Gadkari said, “While on my way to this venue, Harsh Sanghvi told me that there is an Accident Nivaran Committee created under each Lok Sabha MP and the respective district collectors head the committee to look into blind spots witnessing frequent fatal accidents”

The Union minister added, “He (Sanghvi) told me that the black spots on the NHAI roads have been improved by 88 per cent and 22 per cent deaths have been reduced. I have told them to send me a list of the black spots found by the Gujarat Police so that I can immediately look into it. In India, we see five lakh accidents per year, in which 1.5 lakh people die. Almost 60 per cent of those who die are aged between 18 and 34 years. That is a loss of 3 per cent of India’s GDP.”

Recalling an accident which he had faced, Gadkari said, “It was in 2004, when I was the Leader of Opposition in Maharashtra, when I met with an accident. My beacon vehicle was being led by two pilot police cars and my police driver had undergone cataract operation. My car was crushed under a truck but by God’s grace, my family and I survived. Preventing fatal accidents is our biggest priority.”

Gadkari also announced approvals of several projects requested by Vadodara MP Ranjan Bhatt, including a highway underpass in Chhani area of Vadodara, expansion of two-lane bridges to match the six-lane road on the Vadodara-Vapi stretch of the highway connecting Mumbai.

Enlisting that the future would see reduced distances from Delhi to major cities in India, including Chennai, Gadkari quoted former US President John F Kennedy’s comment on “roads” being vital for development and said, “If infrastructure is not good, then one cannot have development. All national highways in India will be of world-standard and on par with the highways in America before the end of 2024.”

He added, “The dream of a road from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, on which you will drive at 120 km per hour, will be ready soon. The Delhi-Mumbai highway, which is being constructed at a cost of Rs 1 lakh crore, has been completed till the Rajasthan border and the stretch till Jhabua in Madhya Pradesh will soon be inaugurated. Then we will inaugurate the Gujarat stretch too and then right up to Mumbai in the next three months. Earlier, it took 36 hours by car from Delhi to Mumbai. Now it will take only 12 hours.”

Gadkari further said that just like flights between Mumbai and Pune ceased after the Mumbai Pune Expressway was constructed during his tenure as the PWD Minister of Maharashtra, soon, many air routes in India will become dysfunctional due to the upgraded highways.

Gadkari said, “Earlier, Delhi to Dehradun took nine hours, now you can get there in two hours. Travelling to Haridwar has become a 1.5-hour drive from Delhi as against eight hours while Meerut is now a 45-minute drive as against 4.5 hours. Amritsar will be an only four-hour drive as against ten hours while the time taken to travel from Delhi to Katra will reduce to half at six hours. Soon, Delhi-Srinagar will be an eight-hour drive only.”

The Union minister also said, “We are building 16 tunnels between Srinagar and Jammu and the work on Zoji La pass is going on in minus 26 degree temperatures. The entire country is seeing such a change in the highways. We are also kickstarting highways to connect Surat to Nashik in Maharashtra and further down to Ahmednagar and Solapur and then to Kurnool, from where one can travel to Trivandrum, Hyderabad, Chennai to Kanyakumari. The Delhi to Chennai distance will be reduced by over 300 km and work will also begin in Manali.”

Gadkari also stressed on cutting down garbage heaps for constructing roads and added that the Amritsar-Bhatinda-Jamnagar highway is being constructed at a cost of Rs 25,000 crore and it would be like a ”runway” offering direct connectivity to Gujarat’s coast.

Gadkari said, “I have even landed on the Amritsar-Jamnagar highway in a flight. We have made 30 roads on which planes can land. Gujarat ports in Kandla, Mundra and also Jamnagar refinery have a direct connectivity with Himachal and Kashmir. We have used 30 lakh tonne of garbage of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation in the Ahmedabad-Dholera greenfield expressway, which is being constructed at a cost of Rs 5,000 crore. You may have garbage heaps in Vadodara too. We have reduced Delhi garbage mountain by seven metre. In the future, we will be a country not to import energy but to export energy.”

Gadkari also added that his ministry had created seven world records, including one near Vadodara for the concrete road patch on the Mumbai Delhi Express highway, and quipped about being a minister with “no dearth” of funds. Gadkari said, “I am a minister who never says no when MPs and MLAs request for something. It is because people are affected (due to lack of projects). And I am one such minister who has no dearth of funds. Modiji has given me a budget of Rs 2.7 lakh (crore) and I have no shortage of funds for work up to Rs 5 lakh crore. These are works for the betterment of the people and if we have to achieve world standards, we have to make our roads better.”