Watch Live: Nitin Gadkari speaks at Express Adda

From completing big-ticket, showpiece projects like the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway and the Delhi-Dehradun Economic Corridor, to creating a web of 25,000 km of new national highways as announced in the Budget, Gadkari’s role in delivering largescale infrastructure projects is crucial to the government’s scheme of things.

The annual allocation to this sector is among the highest in the government, which has identified these works as a major boost to capital spend, employment generation and multiplier effect on the economy on its road to recovery.

Over the next year, new policy interventions, like the vehicle scrappage policy and a slew of regulations to make Indian vehicles safer, will also put Gadkari in the driver’s seat of reforms in the transport sector. In the past, he has argued for bringing down road crashes in India, which sees about 4.5 lakh accidents and about 1.5 lakh deaths annually.

A key strategist in the BJP leadership, with friends on both sides of the aisle, Gadkari is known as a troubleshooter and a doer. Being a former BJP president, he is known to have close ties with the RSS.

At the Express Adda on Tuesday, Gadkari will be in conversation with Anant Goenka, Executive Director, Indian Express Group, and Vandita Mishra, National Opinion Editor, The Indian Express.

The Express Adda is a series of informal interactions organised by The Indian Express Group and features those at the centre of change.

Previous guests at the Adda include Union Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar, Union Minister of Health Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs and Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri, election strategist Prashant Kishor and Union Minister of Environment, Forests and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav.