Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday said the Government will build 26 green expressways in the country in the next three years and India's road infrastructure will be as good as that in the United States by 2024. He also said the Government is looking at new technologies to replace toll plazas in the country and the new system will be introduced in the next six months.
Giving this assurance in the Rajya Sabha, he also said the FASTags policy has seen a record collection of more than Rs 120 crores in a single day as toll. It was higher than the toll collected when the fast tag was not mandatory, he said, adding more than 97 percent of vehicle owners had acquired fast tags. Till date, 5.56 crore FASTags have been issued, the minister said.
Replying to supplementaries during the Question Hour, he said toll plazas have created many problems like traffic snarls and long queues, which the government wants to end.
The government, he said, is now searching for two options - satellite
based toll system where the GPS will be there in a car and the toll will be directly subtracted from the passenger's bank account and the other option is through number plates.
Gadkari said they are in the process of selecting the best technology for collection of toll, and will also bring an important legislation in Parliament.
He said number plates with new technology have been introduced and it is mandatory for the manufacturer to have new number plates and there will be a computerised system by which one can collect toll using new software.
On pace of road construction, Gadkari said there is no shortage of funds with the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) which has ÃAA rating and is financially very sound. He said the NHAI can build five lakh km roads in a year.
"In the next three years, we are building 26 green expressways," he said, adding that one can travel from Delhi to Dehradun, Haridwar or Jaipur in two hours thereafter.
He also claimed that once the expressways are built, one can travel from Delhi to Chandigarh in 2.5 hours, Delhi to Amritsar in four
hours, Delhi to Katra in six hours, Delhi to Srinagar in eight hours
and Delhi to Mumbai in 12 hours and Chennai to Bengaluru in two hours.
Earlier, it used to take 4.5 hours to travel from Meerut to Delhi but now people are coming in 40 minutes, he claimed. "Under Narendra Modi's leadership before 2024, India's road infrastructure will be the same as that in the United States, I promise. There is no shortage of funds," Gadkari said, adding, we will change the entire infrastructure of the country.