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.
The ministry is also holding a road show aimed at projecting investment opportunities in the sector. The visit is significant as the ministry is scouting investment of $70 billion for road construction in the next 3-4 years, out of which about $45 billion is expected to come from the private sector, including $10 billion from foreign investors.
His outburst has to rank among the most bizarre episodes of two arms of the government fighting in public.
'Roads are important as they provide domestic economic stimulus.'
Road Transport and Highways Minister Kamal Nath has said that he is "excited" about his new portfolio as he is looking forward to a challenge and has got one.
Union Transport and Highways Minister Kamal Nath was taken aback at the Indian Consulate in New York, when a journalist asked him about his alleged involvement in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in New Delhi during a press conference Tuesday, a couple of hours after a civil lawsuit was filed against him in a New York district court.
The minister said the monorail systems can be built under public-private-partnership mode.
Road Transport and Highways Minister Kamal Nath has been summoned by a US federal district court for his alleged role in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots based on a case filed by a Sikh outfit.
A petition has been filed in the Madhya Pradesh High Court challenging the election of Union Minister for Surface Transport Kamal Nath from Chhindwara Lok Sabha constituency for allegedly suppressing actual expenditures incurred on helicopter rides during campaign.
Some ministers have a different point of view from the current conventional wisdom in the Congress party and the UPA government.
"We have decided to build 20 km of roads every day and then take it to 7,000 km a year. Therefore, if we lose more days (in terms of putting foreign investment in place), it will be a great loss," Union Minister of Surface Transport Kamal Nath told a gathering of 100-odd potential investors and entrepreneurs at the Indian Consulate in New York on Tuesday.
"We are building 20 km roads a day. But is this enough?"
Kamal Nath said that the Bharatiya Janata Party was perturbed as its "corruption over its 15-year rule is going to be exposed"
Only two Indo-Canadian Members of Parliament -- Conservative Deepak Obhrai and Liberal Yasmeen Ratansi, and one senator, Conservative Vim Kochhar, showed up to greet Kamal Nath, Indian minister for roads, transportation and highways, at a reception organised by the Canada-India Parliamentary Association in Ottawa, on March 24.
We have decided to build 20 kilometers of road a day to take it to 7,000 kilometers a year: Kamal Nath.
Aiming for a 9 per cent GDP growth by 2011, India attaches the 'highest priority' to build good road infrastructure across the country to achieve the target, Union Road Transport Minister Kamal Nath has said.
Kamal Nath is in New York attending several meetings, including McGraw-Hill Construction, which is one of the largest construction industry events.
Road Transport Minister Kamal Nath said on Monday he was forewarned that the Plan panel would not allow him to achieve a 20 km-a-day road-building target.
The two bodies have been fighting a running battle over the targets for construction of highways.
Transport Ministry has set an ambitious target of building 35,000 km of highways network by March 2014 that translates into 20 km a day.
However, finance minister Pranab Mukerjee did not commit himself to this proposal of floating infrastructure bonds, as this requires detailed examination and Parliamentary nod.
To attract foreign investors to bid for road projects in the country, road transport and highways minister Kamal Nath said on Sunday the government would award the first mega highways project in two months.
Eight Union ministers, two former chief ministers and one ex-governor are among those who are set to test their electoral fate in the first phase of elections on April 19 when 102 seats across 21 states and Union territories will go to polls.
The much-hyped target set by Union road transport and highways Minister Kamal Nath, to build 20 kilometres of roads every day, might be revised to a more achievable target, informed sources say. Sources close to the development say there is talk within the ministry of a more feasible target. "The target of 20 kilometres per day is not sacrosanct. That is what the minister wanted to achieve.
The government planned to build 12,000 kilometres of roads, including highways, at an estimated cost of Rs 1,00,000 crore (Rs 1 trillion) in the current financial year, Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Kamal Nath said.
Building roads has become a priority for the new Congress-led government as it aims to generate demand across the country. Kamal Nath's\nappointment as transport minister is seen by analysts as an attempt to push that agenda.
Toll collection is a key instrument for the government to attract private investment.
Besides projects under the NHAI, the government earmarks funds for constructing roads, undertaken by various state government agencies and municipal corporations. Nath will be seeking Rs 6,000 crore (Rs 60 billion) for this.
Soon after taking charge, transport minister Kamal Nath had made it mandatory for the states to sign the State Support Agreement under which the states would have to acquire land for highway construction to get central funds.
Transport Minister Kamal Nath on Thursday said the government may look at using cement for constructing over 18,000 km of expressways in the country.
Over 2,500 global leaders in business and politics arrived in this Swiss resort on Wednesday to put their minds together on how best to support the fragile recovery following the worst economic crisis since the 1930s.
A plan for projects to be awarded in the year 2010-11 is to be launched soon.
A Sikh group, campaigning for justice for the victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, met US President Barack Obama, ahead of his visit to India in November.The group met Obama in Philadelphia on Monday, according to Sikhs For Justice, a New York-based group, which has initiated a case against Transport Minister Kamal Nath in New York for his alleged role in the riots.
Kamal Nath on Thursday took over as Urban Development Minister with an ambitious plan of giving a boost to urban transportation for which he intends to expand Delhi Metro network to make it bigger than its London counterpart by 2017.
The minister, however, refused to divulge the names of the companies saying that there were many of them and he could not name them just then.
The minister said there is a need to ramp up road construction 10-fold to achieve the development targets set for the next decade.
This will fill the road infrastructure deficit.
India expects a big investment of $5 billion (about Rs 22,800 crore) from Canada in the country's road development programme over the next three to four years, road transport and highways minister Kamal Nath has said.
The Indian economy has emerged almost unscathed from the global economic crisis that has ravaged many nations, said Union Minister of Surface Transport Kamal Nath on Tuesday.
In an interview with Mihir Mishra and Jyoti Mukul, Nath, who as the commerce and industry minister in the previous United Progressive Alliance government was part of the fire-fighting to minimise impact of the slowdown, says that the current year will be better than the last year.
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