Union Minister for Shipping, Highways and Road Transport Nitin Gadkari announced here on Tuesday that the e-tolling system on all the 360 toll plazas across the country would be operational by April this year.
Addressing a news conference at the “Make In India” Week media centre in Mumbai, Gadkari said: “We have already put this project on fast track and we expect the system to be operational before April this year”. Gadkari said that a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) would be formed to implement e-tolling system project. “The e-tolling system would reduce waiting time at toll plazas and save cost and fuel,” he said.
The minister also said that his ministry was currently focusing on Hybrid Annuity and Engineering, Procurement, Construction (EPC) models for development of road projects. “Road projects worth Rs 3,80,000 crore that were stalled have been revived and Rs 1,00,000 crore contract order has been issued in the North East region,” he said.
Gadkari said that India’s national road highway length had now raised to 1,52,000 km from 96,000 km and was expected to cross the 200,000 km milestone by April-May, 201Rs 6. “In Maharashtra, the road length has been raised to 22,000 km from 7,000 km,” he said.
Dwelling on the advantages water transport and its cost advantage, Gadkari said the government planned to promote inland water transport in a big way . “On Ganga, our Ministry is building three multi modal hubs at Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, Sahibganj in Jharkhand and Haldia in West Bengal. We plan to create 30 water ports on this stretch and overall 500 water ports across the country,” he said.