Connecting villages to cities and bringing in full transparency in the road sector will be topmost on the priority list of Nitin Jairam Gadkari, who assumed charge of Road Transport & Highways and Shipping Ministry on Thursday.
Gadkari also said that another project close to his heart was restoring river Ganga’s glory. “It is my dream to restore sacred river Ganga’s lost glory. The ministry will aim to utilise this ancient river’s full potential by using it as a waterway from Gangotri to Kanpur and Kanpur to Patna to transport cargo and man,”said Gadkari after taking charge of the crucial infrastructure ministries.
“The Ministry will work out ways for transforming this ancient river into a mode for cargo and public transport. There is a lot of potential in waterways transportation. We will assess the possibilities of dredging and other measures,” he said.The former BJP President, he has been entrusted with a huge task of overhauling the sector, which has been in crises for the last couple of years.
“We will bring in complete transparency, full accountability and e-governance in the sector. There will be no scope for favouritism,” said Gadkari.“Atal Bihari Vajpayeeji, our former PM had entrusted me with two challenging tasks - linking villages under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna (PMGSY) and converting National Highways into four-lanes. I will ensure that we double the highway network and link as many villages to cities in the shortest span,” he said.
Gadkari who assumed office on Thursday, said that it was his expertise in building flyovers and highways, which made the government entrust him with this role.The challenges before Gadkari include reviving the ailing road sector and also upgrading 55,000 kms of highways with an expenditure of `5.89 lakh crore, a large portion of which is likely to be funded by the private sector through PPP mode.
His other portfolio, shipping, has been in the red for a few years now. It is poised for huge capacity augmentation to 3,130 million tonne (MT) from around 700 MT at present at the country’s 12 major ports in the next 5-6 years.
The success of the Mumbai-Pune in Maharashtra during his stint as the PWD Minister between 1995 and 1999 brought him fame. Then PM, Atal Bihari Vajpayee also asked him to launch the national highway authority.