Nitin Gadkari emphasises India’s improved road network and conditions, which he believes would boost car sales.
Nitin Gadkari highlighted India’s increasing road network on Tuesday, emphasising how more – and better – road connectivity is now competing with the aviation sector. Speaking at the 64th annual SIAM – Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers – conference in New Delhi, the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways emphasised the ongoing development in road network alternatives.
While emphasising the need of improving road safety to reduce accidents in India, Gadkari informed the gathering automotive industry officials that the benefits of better roads also contribute to increased sales. “We are making good roads and you are making profits,” he said, attributing to how infrastructure development has a positive impact on automobile sales. “We are giving competition to aviation (sector). Flight from Delhi to Dehradun will be closed, flight from Delhi to Amritsar will be closed, from Delhi to Jaipur will be closed, from Chennai to Bengaluru will be closed because travel time will be only two hours. So who is going to benefit?” he asked before taking a lighter take on the matter. “I am not going to ask for royalty from you.”
Gadkari also reaffirmed that the Indian government intends to build more roads in the area, which would assist in creating jobs and alleviating poverty. India boasts the world’s second-largest road network. The rate of road development, particularly on highways, has accelerated dramatically in recent years. According to central government estimates, the national highway network would grow from 91,287 km in 2014 to 1.46 lakh by 2023. The length of four-lane roadways expanded from 18,387 km in 2014 to 46,179 km last year. In 2023, the national highway building rate was 28.3 km/day, with a nine-fold increase in investment to ₹3.17 lakh crores compared to a decade prior. In all, India has a road network of around 66.71 lakh kilometres (2023 data), including 1.46 lakh-long national highways, 1.79 lakh-long state highways, and 63.45 lakh-long roads classed as others.