"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.
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.
We have decided to build 20 kilometers of road a day to take it to 7,000 kilometers a year: Kamal Nath.
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.
A plan for projects to be awarded in the year 2010-11 is to be launched soon.
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.
The group, which held its first meeting in London on Monday will focus mainly on the construction of major highways and district-level roads. It will comprise major road building contractors from the UK and India.
NHAI chairman Brajeshwar Singh said the highways authority would recruit 400 people in the next 12-18 months to deal with the manpower shortage faced by it.
To centralise process by setting up special units in each state.
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.
Canada is not reaching out to India to the extent it could have, said Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Kamal Nath.
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 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.
Despite claims of an 'austerity drive' by the United Progressive Alliance government and the Congress party, some Union ministers appeared to prefer upmarket accommodation during their official visits to the United States.
Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Transport Kamal Nath on Tuesday claimed that the Congress would form the government in Arunachal Pradesh, Haryana and Maharashtra.
Two state ministers have also come out in the open to demand a detailed assessment by the top leadership.
A number of Union ministers including Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad reached the residence of Union Minister for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi in New Delhi to celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr on Wednesday.
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.
Glimpses of Republic Day celebrations across the country.
If the Opposition has any chance at the prime minister's job, it can happen only if they all stop dropping names and work at the grassroots-level, state-wise, suggests N Sathiya Moorthy.
Is anyone in the BJP listening -- to what Nitin Gadkari had to say, but possibly left unsaid? asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
