The truckers organisation, All India Motor Transport Congress has demanded lower toll tax or nearly 62 lakh (6.2 million) trucks would go off roads from August 6, bringing movement of goods throughout the country to a halt.
At present, Road Secretary R S Gujral is handling the additional charge of NHAI chairman, the position which has been vacated by Brijeshwar Singh, for three months.
The projects include six-laning of highway stretches in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh, four-laning of highway stretches in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh and two-laning with paved shoulders of stretches in Punjab and Rajasthan.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said re-developed railway stations would become iconic structures and centres of economic activity.
The Planning Commission on Monday lowered the target for construction of roads under the NHDP scheme to 2,500 km for the current fiscal from 3,165 km in the previous year, which was not met by the road ministry.
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 minister said there is a need to ramp up road construction 10-fold to achieve the development targets set for the next decade.
To centralise process by setting up special units in each state.
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 transport mnistry had in November 2006 proposed the four Expressways -- Vadodara-Mumbai, Bangalore-Chennai, New Delhi-Meerut and Kolkata-Dhanbad.
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.
The move comes in the wake of India raising cap on foreign institutional investors investment by $5 billion in government and corporate bonds each.
The government expects to collect Rs 1,495 crore (Rs 14.95 billion) as toll tax from highways during the current fiscal, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Wednesday.
"We are building 20 km roads a day. But is this enough?"
'Some companies have agreed to 2-3% incentive but the automakers and SIAM have to decide amongst themselves'
With just over a month to go for assembly elections in Goa, political observers feel the Congress may upset the Bharatiya Janata Party's plans for retaining power in the coastal state, but appear less enthused about the Trinamool Congress, whose entry has added colour to the poll campaign.
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.
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.
"There were discussions and the ministry had received suggestions that petrol-diesel vehicles should be banned. I would like to clarify that the government does not intend to ban petrol and diesel vehicles. We are not going to do anything like that," Gadkari said, addressing a gathering at the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) annual convention, 2019.
India wasn't applying widespread crash testing like foreign countries do, so manufacturers didn't see the need for an investment focus on safety. Customers rarely walked into showrooms asking for the safest car. They wanted the cheapest or the most fuel-efficient or the best-looking car.
The Union Road Transport and Highways Ministry proposes to build a huge network of expressways by 2022, also the final year of the Thirteenth Five-Year Plan.The ministry plans to build expressways in 3 phases -- by 2012, 2017 and 2022 -- and, accordingly, it has prepared a draft report for a network of the proposed 17,661-km of stretches.The report has suggested the government set up the proposed expressways on both an annuity and a public-private partnership (PPP) basis.
Having now privatized infrastructure in India, we are looking at the second decade of the 21st century as the decade of infrastructure. Infrastructure is now the buzzword in India, says Kamal Nath, Minister for Road Transport.
The fDi Personality of the Year awards recognise the political and business leaders around the world who have been the most proactive, dynamic and innovative in securing foreign investment and improving the business environments of their jurisdictions.
Union Minister Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Friday warned of a criminal defamation case against Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi if the latter continues to insult External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.
Union Minister for Shipping, Road Transport and Highways TR Baalu has said the new toll policy has been finalised by the government, while the toll rules are under formulation.
Allaying apprehensions of a food crisis in view of poor monsoon, minister of road transport and highways Kamal Nath said on Friday the country has enough foodgrain reserves to tackle even the worst monsoon situation.
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.
"Land acquisition is the biggest issue. Now contracts will be awarded if 80 per cent of the land is acquired and is in possession of National Highway Authority of India," minister for road transport and highways Kamal Nath said during the Question Hour in the Lok Sabha. On members' complaints regarding 'very high' toll rates in public-private partnership projects, the minister defended the existing rates and said reduced toll would mean less roads.
The ministry is seeking a $2.96-billion World Bank funding for double-laning of 6,300 km of single-lane highways, out of a total of about 19,000 km single-lane highways in the country.
The kits for converting regular two-wheelers to those for the physically challenged will be sold only by select manufacturers who will need prior approval from the government after testing for brakes and the ability to handle gradation. Only workshops approved for fitment of the kits can make the changes to the vehicle. The approval, according to this notification, will be based on competence, availability of necessary equipment, experience in the relevant field and manpower.
The I&M programme will entail a nationwide comprehensive programme to test and certify, at frequent intervals, a vehicle's 'road worthiness'. The programme gains importance as more than 100,000 people die each year from road accidents in the country, roughly 10 per cent of the world total.
The government will invite bids by this year-end for three mega projects worth around Rs 14,500 crore (Rs 145 billion) in the road sector, Road Transport and Highways Minister Kamal Nath said on Friday. Earlier, he had said that 20 km of roads will be built in a day in the next two years amounting to an investment of Rs 2,00,000 crore (Rs 2,000 billion).
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.
The ministry was supposed to send the policy for Cabinet clearance by February end.
In the wake of Mumbai attacks by terrorists who came by the sea route, the Centre on Friday decided to authorise the Coast Guard to check all the "suspicious merchant vessels" prior to entry at the country's ports.
Fifteen Cabinet ministers and 28 Ministers of State were sworn-in by President Ram Nath Kovind at a ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Wednesday evening.
'I see a virtually zero impact on the sales of new vehicles with this move,' said an expert
The use of beacon light, which is seen as a status symbol, is till now restricted to a select category of people from politics, judiciary, executive and legislature.
The bill also has provision of up to Rs 10 lakh compensation in case of road fatality.
Following suggestion from Minister for Roads Nitin Gadkari, Centre seeks ideas from IRDAI and General Insurance Council on feasibility of providing insurance cover for retrenchment.
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