India has world's second largest road network: Nitin Gadkari tells World Road Congress

Nitin Gadkari, the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, claimed on Monday that India has the second-largest global road network. India is the third-largest auto production hub in the world, he added.

Accidents are a significant concern for India, according to Gadkari, who spoke at the 27th World Road Congress in Prague.

“We are the second largest road network in the world and now at the same time, we are the third largest automobile manufacturing hub in the world. These are the two strength. But at the same time, we are facing highest number of accidents and that is to be a big challenge for the country,” Gadkari said.

Nitin Gadkari remarked that India has made numerous decisions about automotive engineering, road engineering, emergencies, education, and enforcement when discussing the measures taken by the government to address the issue.

“We have taken a lot of decision related with the automobile engineering, road engineering, emergency, education, and enforcement. We have taken special measures as the law in the parliament for making stern action against the people who are violating the law. But, at the same time, we are not getting reasonable success in it,” he said.

Calling human behaviour “important,” Gadkari said, “the most important point which I feel that the human behavior is very important. But, we will never continue to change the mindset. And this education of masses and creating awareness in the mind of the people is very important. We have road safety council.”

“We have already introduced the road safety agenda into the preliminary education system, trying to change the mindset of the small student people children. And at the same time, it is important that we are taking help from educational institutions, universities, social organization to create awareness in the mind of the people,” he added.

Gadkari emphasised the necessity of changing Indians’ mentalities while pointing out that accidents cost the country 3% of its GDP. He claimed that in order to educate the public, they have worked with famous persons, filmmakers, and celibates. According to Gadkari, India has decided to cut accidents by 50% by 2030.

“We are trying our level best, but still it is a big challenge for the country. Three per cent of the GDP we are losing because of the accidents. And now I feel that already it is a mission for the government and for the people and the society that 2030 we have decided to reduce the road accident by 50 percent. It is a big challenge… A lot of initiative we have taken, and this is to be one of the big problem. But regarding the experience from the lot of good experience and successful stories from here. We will inspire and motivate and we will try our level best to reduce the accident in our country,” Gadkari said.

It is noteworthy that Nitin Gadkari was welcomed in the customary “Maharashtrian way” on Sunday at the Prague airport. Gadkari was welcomed in Prague by Hemant Kotalwar, India’s ambassador to the Czech Republic.

Gadkari stated in Parliament earlier in July that the federal government has set a tentative goal for the building of around 13,800 kilometres of National Highways (NHs) in 2023–2024.

According to him, 2,250 km have already been built in comparison to the year’s target as of June 2023. When questioned if the construction materials used to build roads were of higher quality than those previously employed, Gadkari responded in the affirmative.

“Construction materials used for road construction work now is of better strength/quality as compared to those used earlier. A few examples are the soil of higher CBR, bitumen/modified bitumen of higher modulus, high strength concrete, high strength steel, etc,” Gadkari said in the written reply in Lok Sabha.

(With agency inputs)