HIGH ON HIGHWAYS

Consistency and enduring zeal have been the hallmark of Nitin Gadkari's helmsmanship of the ministry, making it among the best performers

- Anilesh S. Mahajan

Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport & Highways

IN A RECENT INTERNAL COMMUNICATION TO HIS OFFICIALS, Nitin Gadkari, the Union minister of road transport and highways, set an ambitious target for them: to construct 60 kilometres of highways every day. It's an uphill task, considering that in FY23, just over 30 km of highways were built on an average daily. The total length of highways thus laid stood at 10,993 km, falling short by 13.7 per cent of the fiscal's target to add 12,500 km.

But Gadkari, who has been at the helm of the ministry since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power at the Centre in May 2014, is known as a tough taskmaster-setting onerous targets and pushing his officials hard to achieve them. And it is this very trait that has helped him speed up the construction of highways, the lifelines of India's economy.