Nitin Gadkari on National Highways: Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has provided many facilities from toll tax to Fastag. Now Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has said that the government is working on a policy to make national highways pothole-free by the end of this year.
Nitin Gadkari News: A lot of work has been done by the Central Government to improve highways and roads across the country. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has provided many facilities from toll tax to Fastag. Now Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has said that the government is working on a policy to make national highways pothole-free by the end of this year. Along with this, priority is also being given to construction of roads through BOT.
Target to be free from potholes by December
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways is engaged in strengthening performance-based maintenance and short-term maintenance contracts with the aim of making the national highways pothole-free by the end of December this year.
Roads are constructed in 3 ways
Generally roads are constructed in three ways. Apart from ‘Build-Operate-Handover’ (BOT), these include Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) and Hybrid Annuity Model (HAM).
Said this in the press conference
Gadkari said in a press conference here that the need for maintenance of roads built through EPC starts much earlier. At the same time, roads are built better through BOT because the contractor also knows that he will have to bear the maintenance cost for the next 15-20 years, hence we have decided to build roads on a large scale through BOT.
When is toll tax collected?
In BOT projects, private partners undertake financing, construction and operation of the projects over a period of 20–30 years and then recover their investment through fees or tolls from highway users. He said that in view of the possibility of damage to the highways and formation of potholes due to rain, the ministry is conducting a safety audit of the national highways.
Government is making policy
Gadkari has said that a policy is being made to ensure that national highways are free from potholes. Young engineers will be taken on board to make this project successful.
Ministry has mapped 1,46,000 km long highway
Speaking on the occasion, Road Transport and Highways Secretary Anurag Jain said the ministry has mapped the entire 1,46,000 km long National Highway network and empowered performance-based maintenance and short-term maintenance contracts to remove potholes by December this year. going.
