Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has emphasized the importance of well-developed infrastructure for enhancing the level of economic activity and creating additional fiscal space by improving the revenue base of the government. Addressing the 29th Annual General Meeting of the American Chambers of Commerce in India on the theme ‘Infrastructure propelling India in the global supply chain’ virtually today, Mr. Gadkari said, the bilateral trade between India and US has grown from 16 Billion Dollars to 149 Billion Dollars in the last two decades and is projected to reach more than 500 Billion Dollars by 2025. The Minister said, the scope of technology transfer, innovation and research and development between India and the US must be further explored. He said, infrastructure development plays an important role in fulfilling the vision of India in becoming five Trillion Dollar economy in the next five years. Mr Gadkari said, government is investing 1.4 Trillion Dollars in infrastructure development through National Infrastructure Pipeline and soon going to launch the National Master Plan of Prime Minister Gatishakti Scheme of more than 100 lakh crore rupees for holistic and integrated infrastructure development in the country. He said, the Gatishakti Master Plan will provide the framework for the NIP programme and is aimed at making Indian products more competitive by cutting down the logistic costs improving the supply chains.
The Minister said, India has about six million kilometres of the road network which is the second largest road network in the world. The road infrastructure plays an important role in the Indian economy as 70 per cent of the goods and nearly 90 per cent of the passenger traffic uses the road network to commute. He said, up- keep and expansion of this network are critical not only from the supply chain perspective but also for the largest share of goods and passenger traffic that uses it.
Mr Gadkari said, to catalyze a long-term investment into infrastructure, the Government is in a process of setting up a new development finance institution. The institution is being set up on a capital base of 20 thousand Crore rupees and will have a lending target of five lakh crore rupees in three years. He said, government is developing integrated inland waterways, air connectivity and road network at large.
The Minister said, India is becoming the largest EV market for electronic 2-wheelers, 3-wheelers and cars. He said, the US-based companies can collaborate with our Research and Development towards EV battery technologies and retrofitting industry.
Mr Gadkari said, government is ready to adopt the world’s best technology without compromising quality, cost effectiveness and sustainability. He said, government focus is on time-bound, qualitative, cost-effective and sustainable world class infra development in this country.
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