Bhubaneswar: Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, while addressing the 84th annual session of the Indian Roads Congress in Bhubaneswar, said that India is moving towards becoming an oil-exporting country instead of an oil-importing country. Gadkari said that this change is coming due to the increasing production and use of alternative fuels like ethanol, methanol, bio-LNG, CNG and green hydrogen.
He said that India is the fastest growing economy in the world and the Prime Minister's dream is to make India the third largest economy, for which we need world-class infrastructure in transport, power and communication.
Gadkari stressed on road safety and said that the government's aim is to create modern infrastructure based on innovation and sustainable solutions, which will create large-scale job opportunities. Bio-bitumen and recycled plastic waste are being used in the construction of highways, which makes the roads stronger, cheaper and eco-friendly.
Gadkari announced Rs 1,000 crore for Odisha under the Central Road Fund for road construction in the state. Citing studies by IIM-Bangalore, IIT-Chennai and IIT-Kanpur, he said that India's logistics cost has come down by 5 per cent due to better infrastructure. Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi said that there has been rapid progress in the road construction sector since 2014.
He said that only 91,000 km of highways were built from independence to 2014, while 55,000 km of highways have been built in the last 10 years. His government has set a target of building 75,000 km of roads in the next five years.