'I've No Desire To Be Prime Minister'

'I am not an aspiration-oriented politician.'
'This is the time to redefine politics.'
'Politics of power is not real politics.'

In a free-wheeling conversation in New Delhi, Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari spoke to Business Standard's Dhruvaksh Saha and Nivedita Mookerji on why elections should not matter while setting targets, his take on being seen as a future prime minister, and much more.

Is your ambitious target of getting to 100 km/day road construction on track, and will it coincide with Viksit Bharat in 2047?

This is a target -- can't say when this will be met. Even I feel it's a difficult target, almost impossible. When anyone keeps a target, it should be ambitious and merit-based.

Till now, whatever targets I've aimed for, I've achieved. So this is also something we'll work on.

We are trying to make our policies better and straighten out issues so that execution of projects is faster.

You have mentioned long-term targets but with the 2029 elections coming in four years, are there any short-term targets you have set?

I don't keep targets keeping elections in mind. I'm a three-time member of Parliament. I tell people in my constituency that if they're happy with my work, they should vote for me.

If they don't, it's alright. I'll still work for them. This is not coming from a place of arrogance -- I'm humble.

But my conviction is that the country will become developed and a Vishwaguru -- a $5 trillion economy soon.

My value system doesn't allow me to think about elections while working.

Dattopant Thengadi was a prominent thinker from my region.

He used to say, 'Every politician thinks about his next election for five years, but every socioeconomic reformer and nation builder thinks from century to century.'

But ultimately, as politicians, we have to fight elections. I can work only because people vote for me.

Any construction target for this year?

We have been trying to increase the target and execution but we have not been able to do it so far. We had reached 40 km per day.

The ideal target for us is 100 km per day (36,500 km for the year). We are reforming policies... The true test of leadership is to convert the impossible into possible.

How is your ministry handling the unfinished work under the Bharatmala programme, which was shut down?

All the remaining projects of Bharatmala are being cleared one by one and it's happening at a fast pace. The name will no longer be Bharatmala.

There are broad themes in the Gati Shakti framework under which projects will be assessed-port connectivity, highway connectivity, religious tourism, and mining and industrial clusters.

During this year, projects worth Rs 1.5 trillion have already been cleared. We are targeting projects worth Rs 5 trillion for which we would like to issue an appointment date.

This would include both new projects and pending Bharatmala projects.

Every year, we have projects worth Rs 2.6-2.8 trillion getting sanctioned. We are trying to double this figure to around Rs 5 trillion this financial year.

You recently said that Indian roads will be better than those in the United States over the next 18 months or so. How will you explain that?

We have around 50 express highways which are in progress right now. Eventually, the whole country will be connected by green expressways and the national highway network will be world-class -- from Kashmir to Kanyakumari.

Today, you go to any state and ask the people-they all recognise and acknowledge the revolution in national highways.

Moreover, whatever has happened so far is just the tip of the iceberg. There's a lot more in the pipeline.

What have been your top three achievements of the last 11 years?

In roads, bridges and tunnels, there are plenty of achievements and seven world records in the Guinness Book of World Records.

But on a personal level, I feel the biggest achievement is elsewhere.

In our country, millions were engaged in the manual labour of carrying and ferrying people on their shoulders, especially in states like Jharkhand and West Bengal and others.

In 2014, I introduced the mechanised e-rickshaws. This was a revolution -- some 15 million people engaged in this manual labour were freed from exploitation.

Among other achievements, I made the Worli-Bandra Sea Link and Mumbai-Pune highway.

The Delhi-Mumbai Expressway will be completed soon and the Dwarka Expressway will be a state-of-the-art project featuring multiple tunnels, including one connecting the Indira Gandhi international airport.

What are the things that you feel you haven't been able to do in the last 11 years?

I have no regrets but everything I wanted, I haven't been able to do. There is so much more to do and that is the agenda I'm trying to move forward with.

Whatever I've achieved, people are happy about it but in my heart, I know that there is so much more to do in green mobility, alternative fuels, new modes of transport and I have many initiatives for that in progress right now.

What are the other flagship projects on your agenda?

For the environment, I am responsible for the degradation (as the road transport minister), because 40 per cent of the air pollution is because of fossil fuels.

I have encouraged alternative fuels and I can see that these are becoming mainstream.

Today, there was a meeting where the ministry wrote to the Automotive Research Association of India giving them the mandate to do trials for 25 to 27 per cent ethanol blending in petrol.

We are also trying to blend isobutanol with diesel. There are large-scale trials ongoing to see if we can do 10 per cent blending of isobutanol in diesel-we believe that it can be an alternative fuel for diesel.

With ethanol, farmers of rural India have been the biggest beneficiaries.... We should focus on smart villages, not just smart cities.

I've been working on this dream since 2004 -- these steps will reduce pollution, import requirements will decrease, and the economy will strengthen.

What is the government's outlook on the current geopolitical situation?

This does not fall in my purview but our external affairs ministry is closely monitoring the situation.

There are concerns that essential bitumen supplies may be getting impacted due to the Iran-Israel situation. Is your ministry working on it?

There are trials going on where we built a 1-kilometre road using bio-bitumen, where the lignin is procured using stubble.

The country used 9.8 million tonnes of bitumen of which around 5 million tonnes would be imported. Lignin constitutes 35 per cent of the process of making bitumen.

Indian Oil has started a project in Panipat under which stubble is being used to generate ethanol, bio-bitumen, and sustainable aviation fuel.

Irrespective of the global developments, it is important that our country becomes 'atmanirbhar' in everything -- imports should reduce and exports should increase.

But the EV segment is struggling due to the paucity of rare-earth magnets from China. What are your thoughts on the way forward?

Our startups, research institutions, and engineering colleges are working hard to find solutions for several problems.

For example, there was a semiconductor shortage problem. We created the PLI (production-linked incentive) scheme for it and now we are working on a large-scale on semiconductors.

Similarly, we are working to find alternatives for this (rare-earth magnets) -- the problem will be solved.

The government is working on a net-zero strategy by 2070. Since road transport is one of the biggest polluters, what has been the road ministry's strategy in this exercise?

A strategy is being worked out, I can't talk about the inter-ministerial exercise as all departments are doing it.

On our part, we are working on 10 major projects on hydrogen fuel cells in which companies like Tata, Ashok Leyland and others will operate hydrogen-based trucks and buses.

This is a priority project. We are making arrangements for transportation and refilling facilities for hydrogen.

Moreover, we are looking at the existing internal combustion engines (ICE) for retrofitting and converting into hydrogen vehicles.

We are also working on a tree bank policy-in wastelands. We will have tree banks where we would be planting and e-tagging additional trees in the multiples for those that will be affected due to national highway construction.

Bhupender Yadav (minister of environment, forest and climate change) has given an in-principle approval to this plan.

Additionally, we are now trying to make the construction process green. We're working on bringing more construction equipment which runs on electricity, hydrogen and other alternative fuels.

There have been concerns about some national highways having quality issues leading to accidents. What is the way forward?

Our ministry is only responsible for national highways. Yes, there have been issues with some projects. In the case of NH-66 collapse in Kerala, we banned the contractor.

We have decided to do the toughest probes on contractors and take action.

Hum chhodenge nahi (we will not let them get away). These are the assets of the country and we will not compromise.

While I'm only responsible for national highways, I'm working on projects worth Rs 1 trillion to decongest Delhi.

We will now have projects worth Rs 30,000 crore on top of this. Similar work is going on in Bengaluru.

As a politician, what is your next aspiration?

I am not an aspiration-oriented politician. My belief is that politics is an instrument of socio-economic reform. I work for the society and the country, villages, underprivileged, and farmers.

My honorary doctorates are not even in road transport but agriculture. I work with organic farming, small enterprises, farmers, and youth.

This is the time to redefine politics. Politics of power is not real politics. Social and development-oriented work is actual politics.

I do 90 per cent social work, 10 per cent politics.

A lot of people think you re a future prime minister. What do you have to say on that?

I don't know. I have no such desire. God has given me much more than what I needed and I'm happy with it. We have Modiji under whose leadership the country is progressing fast.

Neither do I have any such desire (to be the PM) nor an expectation. Till the time I'm active, I'll keep working.

I'm a swayamsewak of the RSS and a worker of the Vidyarthi Parishad. I've worked with the same conviction all my life and I'll keep working with the same drive.

Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff