Several trains were cancelled, highways and key roads blocked and many thousands stranded for hours on Monday as a nationwide 10-hour shutdown against the Centre's three agri laws disrupted lives across parts of India, particularly in the north.
Union ministers Nitin Gadkari, Narendra Singh Tomar and Sadananda Gowda were among those who received the first shot of the COVID-19 vaccine on Saturday.
Our country needs massive investment in access of Rs 50 lakh crore in infrastructure to increase growth of GDP and integrate the nation with a network of roads, airports, railways, inland water and to provide good quality services to the people: FM
Gadkari and Singh on Thursday came together to release a book on late Congress leader Ramkrishna More at Pimpri Chinchwad near Pune.
The Delhi high court on Thursday directed the city government to stop erickshaws from plying on the roads of the national capital "as of now". "Stop it as of now," a bench of justices B D Ahmed and S Mridul said, while observing that "unregulated plying of vehicles on Delhi roads is prima facie a hazard to other traffic on road as well as the citizens".
The chief minister also put forth the demand to stop hydrocarbon extraction project in Neduvasal in Pudukkottai district that has attracted large-scale protests recently.
Gadkari recalled the advice once given by late Congress leader Shrikant Jichkar.
India laid out the red carpet and accorded a ceremonial reception for one of this country's most valued allies, Sheikh Hasina
Schemes like the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana strain fiscal resources amid rising unemployment and prices of food items.
The road ministry has put forward two proposals before the Prime Minister's Office and the finance ministry.
'I'm very much against petrol and diesel....'' 'I travel in an electric car.' 'I have had a really good experience with it.'
Gadkari said the NHAI was working on setting up an InvIT to monetise its projects for mobilising resources through capital markets.
Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Tuesday pitched for policy guidelines to utilise scrapped vehicles as raw material for steel production, saying there are close to about one crore such vehicles in the country. Scindia, who also holds steel portfolio, said the time is not far away when the country will have to move towards green steel, and therefore, the option of iron ore and coking coal will not be available. Green steel is manufactured without using fossil fuels.
Gadkari said, infrastructure sector including highways, airports, inland waterways, railways, logistic parks, broad gauge and metro, apart from MSMEs can attract large scale foreign investment.
The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust has sent invitations to 7,000 people, including 3,000 VVIPs, for the consecration.
The Centre should provide a clear regulatory pathway that it will follow so that automobile companies can plan their investments and car launches accordingly, Venkatram Mamillapalle, managing director (MD) & chief executive officer (CEO), Renault India Operations, said on Tuesday. Renault is planning to launch five cars - including a B-plus segment sport utility vehicle (SUV), a C-segment SUV and an electric vehicle (EV) - in India in the next three years, he told reporters. In early 2022, the ministry of road transport and highways had announced that cars in India would be required to have six airbags from October 1, 2022.
Five people were killed and about 50 missing following several incidents of cloudburst in Himachal Pradesh where rains washed away many houses, bridges and roads, officials said on Thursday.
Under attack from Members of the Parliament, Surface Transport Minister Kamal Nath on Tuesday sought to blame the excess rains this year for bad condition of roads in some parts of the country.
'Roads are important as they provide domestic economic stimulus.'
Looking to push nearly 28 million over 11-year-old polluting vehicles off-roads, the government has proposed incentives worth 8-12 per cent of the cost of a new vehicle for surrendering the old ones.
He said he has spoken to the trapped labourers.
A government-instituted panel which probed the extent of non-compliance by General Motors in re-fitting pre-approved engines on Tavera models sent for inspection to meet specified emission norms, submitted its report late on Monday evening, holding the company responsible for corporate fraud.
The companies behind the project said their goal is to turn around the usual route of transport innovation by focusing on the highway rather than the vehicles which use it.
India has a road network of over 3.314 million kilometres, making it the third largest road network in the world.
Clean air needs action all year round; and that it will work only if we act jointly and at scale, asserts Sunita Narain.
The transport mnistry had in November 2006 proposed the four Expressways -- Vadodara-Mumbai, Bangalore-Chennai, New Delhi-Meerut and Kolkata-Dhanbad.
Drivers of commercial vehicles, including trucks and tankers, stopped work in several states on Monday and blocked roads at some places to protest against the provision in the new penal law regarding hit-and-run accident cases involving motorists.
Automobile dealers' body FADA on Thursday sought a cut in GST on two-wheelers from 28 per cent to 18 per cent, saying the segment being essential for millions should not be categorised as luxury item. The industry body said it has appealed to the finance minister, chair of the GST Council, all GST Council members, the ministry of heavy industries, which supervises the automobile sector, and the ministry of road transport & highways. This timely and decisive intervention would help in making two-wheelers more affordable, reviving demand and reinvigorating an industry that has seen a significant slump in sales over the past few years, the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) said in a statement.
Many Kashmiris have been left with no option but to flag down the odd private vehicle passing by in the Valley.
Some taxi and cab unions, including those associated with app-based aggregators, have decided to join the strike called by farmers organisations demanding repeal of three new farm sector laws.
The minister said his target is to complete Mumbai-Goa highway by 2018
Modi also virtually flagged off a new train between Antagarh in Kanker district and Raipur and kickstarted the distribution of cards of the Centre's Ayushman Bharat scheme to beneficiaries in the state.
Currently, roads are only entrusted with the authority which licences them to private developers who cannot provide such roads as security to avail loans from banks and other other institutions. Once the roads are vested with the NHAI, the authority can lease them to the developer who can securitise the property to raise money.
The minister said there is a need to ramp up road construction 10-fold to achieve the development targets set for the next decade.
The limited availability of flexible (flex)-fuel vehicles in the Indian market and the slow rollout of ethanol-blended petrol by oil-marketing companies (OMCs) remain major obstacles to achieving widespread use of biofuels in the transportation sector in India. Recently, two Union ministers have emphasised India's biofuel potential, arguing that it has the capacity and potential to lead a transition towards widespread biofuel adoption. Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari signalled that this transition is well underway and urged car manufacturers to quickly adapt and introduce new biofuel-run vehicles, lest the government resort to taxing diesel vehicles.
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has been under attack for delays in completion of its road projects as well as for poor corridor management.
Euro NCAP had said it was disappointed to see quadricycles, including the Bajaj Qute, lack basic safety features.
England has been blanketed in snow, plunging Britain's transport network into chaos with crashed cars, grounded planes and cancelled trains. Police forces and highway agencies across the United Kingdom have urged people not to travel unless 'absolutely necessary' as they deal with surging calls, while all trains have been suspended out of London Euston.
At least 27 Indian pilgrims, all from Maharashtra, who arrived in Nepal for a 10-day tour were killed and 16 others injured after their bus veered off the highway and fell into a fast-flowing river in central Nepal on Friday.
The move is part of a larger initiative by the government to speed up work in the highway sector.
