India’s road infrastructure will be better than that of US in 2 years, new toll policy soon: Nitin Gadkari

The Mumbai-Goa highway project has had several deadlines. In March 2023, Gadkari set a target to complete the project by December 2023, which was not met. For over a decade, the issue of unfinished work has been repeatedly raised by locals, legislators, and various organisations. However, despite promises from successive governments, the project remained incomplete.

Gadkari cited legal disputes and conflicts between land-owning family members as the primary reasons for the delay in land acquisition for the project. “There were fights among brothers, cases in courts, and endless complications in providing compensation for land,” he said.

Gadkari acknowledged that Delhi Jaipur and Mumbai-Goa highways are among the black spots of his ministry. “If I am to talk about Konkan, there are 13-14 owners in three acres of land. There are disputes, court cases… But they have been resolved, and the work on the Mumbai-Goa highway has gained momentum,” he said.

While discussing his ambitious projects, Gadkari highlighted his ministry’s initiatives in Jammu and Kashmir and the ongoing highway work for the Delhi-Mumbai and Surat-Chennai routes.

“The Delhi-Mumbai highway will bring you to Surat, and from Surat, a new highway is being constructed till Chennai. In Maharashtra, it will travel from Surat to Nasik, Ahmadnagar, Solapur and further south. This means one does not need to come to Mumbai or Pune to go to the south. The dream of going from Kashmir to Kanyakumari (via national highways) will be completed in the next year,” he said, adding that his ministry has been building 57 express highways in the country at a cost of Rs 10 lakh crore.

Gadkari reiterated that physical toll booths will be removed across the country soon and the Centre will develop a new toll policy.

“The Central government will soon introduce a new toll policy. I will not speak much about it now, but within the next 15 days, a new policy will be announced. Once implemented, there will be no reason for anyone to complain about tolls,” he said.