Nitin Gadkari describes the pace of national highways construction 'faster than ever'

Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday, July 13 took to Twitter and stated that national highways in the country are being constructed at a faster pace than ever. In his tweet, he added a graphic titled 'Faster infrastructure development for Aatma Nirbhar Bharat' where he compared the National Highways construction over the years to the rate of construction in the financial year 2020-21. It also highlighted the record speed of road construction at 37km/ day. 

It also mentioned how the speed of construction which was 13km/ day between 2009-14 rose to 25km/day between 2014-21. There was an 83% increase in the annual average during that time. The daily targetted average in 2020-21 was 30km/day which has been surpassed to 37km/ day thus making it 21% above target. 

Nitin Gadkari inaugurates First LNG facility plant in Nagpur

Union minister Nitin Gadkari recently inaugurated India's first commercial Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) facility in Nagpur. At the event, Gadkari spoke about the importance of inaugurating India's first commercial Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) facility in Nagpur. He mentioned that people would get relief from the hike in petrol prices if they resort to using alternative fuels like LNG, CNG or ethanol. He added that LNG is a clean and cost-effective fuel, and will revolutionize the transport sector. The facility, located near Nagpur Jabalpur Highway has been set up by the Baidyanath Ayurvedic Group. 

In the press conference at the event, Gadkari stated "In our economy, we are spending 8 lakh crores for the import of petrol diesel and petroleum products which is a big challenge. We have designed a policy that encourages the development of imports to substitute cost-effective pollution-free and indigenous ethanol, bio CNG, LNG and hydrogen fuels."

Highlighting the economic advantage of using LNG, he quoted data and mentioned that it showed the average cost of conversion of a regular truck engine into an LNG engine was about ₹ 10 lakh. He stated that after converting into LNG there will be a saving of about ₹ 11 lakh per vehicle in just 9-10 months since trucks run around 98,000 km a year and the conversion cost can be easily recovered.