National Master Plan: Rs 100 lakh cr integrated infrastructure development programme Gati Shakti to be launched soon, Nitin Gadkari says

Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari has said that the government is soon going to launch the National Master Plan of Prime Minister - Gati Shakti. This scheme of more than Rs 100 lakh crore for holistic and integrated infrastructure development, will create huge employment opportunities.  

He said this year government has increased year-on-year infrastructure Capex by 34 per cent to Rs 5.54 lakh crore, such increased investment in infrastructure would revive the economy and create employment in near future. 

He was addressing a virtual dialogue on ‘Transforming India’s Mobility’ he said, roads have the largest share in national monetisation plan at 26 per cent with the target of Rs 160,000 crore over 4 years.  

He said that the National Monetisation Program will build reliability and confidence in developers and financing institutions as the identified projects are likely to be better prepared, exposure less likely to the risk given active project monitoring, management, and accountability. 

Gadkari said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set a vision for India to become a $5-trillion economy in the next five years. He said it is our firm belief that increased investment in infrastructure would not only create demand in the economy but also it would make growth - sustainable, equitable, and inclusive.   

He said it is proven that due to the multiplier effect, Re 1 spent on infrastructure ends up as Rs 2.5 in the economy.  He said with this context, the government has provided the utmost importance to the development of world-class infrastructure in the country. 

The minister said that a comprehensive strategy has been adopted for the development of roads with 100 per cent FDI being allowed in the road sector. He said NHAI is planning to monetise roads majorly through two modes - one is toll operate transfer that is TOT, and other is INvIT. 

He said since there have been good outcomes for NHAI from TOT, it will continue to progress the strategy with smaller bundles that meet the requirement of international and domestic players.

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Gadkari said agriculture is our real strength and we are intended to diversify in energy and power sector, waste to wealth and waste to energy is very important. He said government has released the report of expert committee on road map for ethanol blending in India by 2025 which discusses the gradual roll out of 20 percent ethanol blending in petrol by 2025.  

He also said we are committed to delivering vehicles with flex engines that give the users an option to run a vehicle on either 100 per cent petrol or 100 per cent bio-ethanol. 

Talking about road fatalities Gadkari said his vision was to achieve 50 per cent reduction in road accident deaths by 2025 and zero fatal accidents in the country by 2030 by taking various initiatives, policy reforms, and adopting the Safe Systems.  

He said to curb this complex problem, Ministry is restructuring and strengthening 4E’s of Road safety that is, Engineering (Both Road and Vehicle Engineering), Enforcement, Education, and Emergency Care Services 

Regarding the Vehicle Scrappage policy, the Minister said there is good response and plan is of making at least one scrapping centre in one district and in some in big cities there can be four or five centres. He said it is a win-win situation for all the stakeholders and will immensely benefit the automobile manufacturing industry.