FROM HIGHWAYS TO ROPEWAYS, GADKARI MAPS ROAD TO VIKSIT BHARAT

Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday laid out a bold, future-focused infrastructure and clean-fuel vision at India News Manch in New Delhi.

- ANJALI SINGH

Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari with iTV Executive Editor Manoj Manu.

Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday outlined a “futuristic” infrastructure and clean-fuel roadmap at the Day 1 session of the two-day ‘India News Manch’ event in New Delhi, arguing that converting knowledge into wealth — and “waste into wealth” — will be central to India’s development journey towards 2047.

In a wide-ranging interaction, Gadkari said rapid upgrades in road connectivity were already reshaping travel behaviour, citing the Delhi-Dehradun corridor and predicting that improved travel times would reduce the need for short-haul flights on certain routes. He said the government was building “36 green express highways” alongside tunnels, bridges and elevated corridors, and spoke of proposals to ease congestion in the National Capital Region, including a study for twin six-lane tunnels to directly link central Delhi with Gurugram.